Tax Department to create online database for judicial history

Internet-based repository- for managing appeals

Soon, the taxman would be able to identify high tax demand cases and dispose them of on a priority basis, apart from spotting and dismissing frivolous appeals instantaneously.

The Income-Tax department has embarked on an ambitious programme to set up an Internet-based repository – ‘National Judiciail Reference System’ (NJRS) – that will contain the litigation history of all tax-payers in the country.

The electronically designed platform will replace the existing manual system of managing appeals. According to the plan, each assessing officer can access all direct tax-related cases and judgments at the click of a button.

5-year deal

The Department has shortlisted IL&FS Technologies and National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) as NJRS’ implementation agency for five years, three sources with direct knowledge of the development, said.

While NSDL has partnered with Skorydov Systems, IL&FS is jointly bidding with Taxmann Technologies for the Rs 50-crore project, they said. The implementation agency will have the overall responsibility to design, develop, test and implement the core NJRS application as the Request For Proposal (RFP) floated by the I-T Department, a copy of which was seen by Business Line.

According to data available on I-T Department’s Web site, about 66,297 direct tax cases are pending with the Appellate Tribunal, various high courts and the Supreme Court.

In most cases, the disputed demand is kept in abeyance till the disposal of the appeal, thereby hampering collections. “The NJRS will give the IT assessing officer ‘dashboard alerts’ to inform him on high demand cases that are locked for appeals. Early disposal of such appeals would result in efficient tax collections,” said a tax expert.

The disputed tax raised but not realised totalled to a whopping Rs 2,08,371 crore last year.

Two components

The NJRS would have two components, namely, Appeals Repository & Management System (ARMS) and the Judicial Research & Reference System (JRRS). ARMS will function as the online repository of all pending appeals and while JRRS will contain judicial orders of decided cases. “With NJRS, decisions arrived on a particular case can be applied to other cases where the facts are almost identical. All in all the process of disposing appeals will be speeded up,” said Skorydov MD Saakar Yadav.

This is not the first attempt by the Department to have a database of direct tax cases. A similar initiative was tried out in the early 90s by the Administrative Staff College of India.

However, it fizzled out as computerisation in the department was at an infancy then. 

Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/info-tech/tax-department-to-create-online-database-for-judicial-history/article4718454.ece