The Parliament on Friday approved the Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Bill, 2020, which will give taxpayers a chance to settle tax disputes by paying their dues without any interest or penalty till March 31.
The Bill, which had been passed by the Lok Sabha on March 4, was approved by the Rajya Sabha on Friday by a voice vote. The Vivad Se Vishwas scheme waives off interest and penalty on pending tax if paid by March 31. For payments made after March 31 and till June 30, a 10% penalty would be charged.
In her response to the discussion on the Bill in the Upper House, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the scheme was not giving amnesty and that those already being prosecuted under the Income Tax Act would be excluded from it.
₹5 crore limit
Replying to questions raised by MPs during the discussion, she said the 75% tax on undisclosed cash deposited at the time of demonetisation would still apply. She said a cap of ₹5 crore in dues had been included in the scheme in order to prevent large-scale evasion or fraud-related cases trying to take advantage of the scheme.
Earlier in the day, DMK MPs P. Wilson and Tiruchi Siva raised concerns about the name of the Bill including Hindi words.
Ms. Sitharaman said: “I do understand the importance of mother tongue and regional languages.”
“In this case, I yield by saying, I give an assurance that we will have circulars going to all the regions to highlight each of the points in this scheme in the respective regional languages,” she added.
