Vivad Se Vishwas scheme garners Rs 72,480 crore tax to government so far

NEW DELHI: The government has garnered Rs 72,480 crore so far through the direct tax dispute resolution scheme Vivad Se Vishwas, sources said.
A total of 45,855 declarations have been filed under the scheme, involving disputed tax demand of Rs 31,734 crore till November 17.
Central public sector companies are also settling their disputes totalling Rs 1 lakh crore under the scheme.
The government had last month extended for the third time the deadline for making payment under the Vivad Se Vishwas scheme by three months to March 31, 2021 in view of the ongoing pandemic. However, declarations have to be filed by December 31, 2020.
Sources said so far tax of Rs 72,480 crore has been paid by the CPSUs and taxpayers against the disputed demand under the scheme.
During a high-level review meeting by the I-T department, it was decided to launch an e-campaign to inform taxpayers about the scheme, guiding and facilitating them in filing of declarations and removing any difficulties faced by them in availing the scheme.
The scheme provides for settlement of disputed tax, disputed interest, disputed penalty or disputed fees in relation to an assessment or reassessment order on payment of 100 per cent of the disputed tax and 25 per cent of the disputed penalty or interest or fee.
The taxpayer is granted immunity from levy of interest, penalty and institution of any proceeding for prosecution for any offence under the Income Tax Act in respect of matters covered in the declaration.
The Direct Tax Vivad se Vishwas Act, 2020 was enacted on March 17, 2020 to settle direct tax disputes locked up in various appellate forums.
In order to provide more time to taxpayers to settle disputes, earlier the date for filing declaration and making payment without additional amount under Vivad se Vishwas was extended from March 31, 2020 to June 30, 2020. Later again, this date was extended to December 31, 2020.
Therefore, earlier both the declaration and the payment without additional amount under the Vivad se Vishwas were required to be made by December 31, 2020. The payment date has since being extended to March 2021.