The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has devised a strategy to speed up the disposal process of 16,000 cases pending with the Supreme Court and the high courts. Sources told Business Recorder here on Sunday that 12,000 tax-related cases were pending with the Supreme Court, while 4,000 cases are yet to be decided by the high courts.
In this regard, cases of similar nature have been clubbed for speedy disposal at the level of higher courts. For example, many pending cases include cases selected for audit under the Universal Self-Assessment Scheme (USAS). All such cases would be collectively taken up with the higher courts for disposal.
Secondly, 25 law officers would be shortly appointed to pursue disposal of cases. Except Large Taxpayer Units (LTUs) and Medium Taxpayer Units (MTUs), law officers would be deputed at all the Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) and commissionerates. In LTU and MTU, special law divisions are exclusively dealing with the pending cases.
Thirdly, the data entry of all the pending cases with the Supreme Court and the high courts has been completed. Now, the CBR has started a verification exercise to confirm the authenticity of data.
The data would also be available with the commissioners and collectors to monitor the performance of pending cases at the higher courts.
The CBR has also developed an "Appeal Management System", a software to monitor the performance of commissioners appeals and collectors appeals. The system will be linked with the ongoing automation in the reform project, and it would play a key-role in reducing litigation between the taxpayers and the department. This would unify the scattered information on appeals waiting for decision with the commissioners concerned.
The computer program would give a daily report of the list of the pending cases to be heard by the officials concerned.