The author laments that the Government is losing crores of rupees due to delay in filing of tax appeals by the tax department. He makes out a fervent case for accountability.
It has been observed that in last two years the department is filing most of the appeals after inordinate delay ranging from 50 days to 1200 days. The only reason is restructuring of tax administration and delay in getting approval from the Ministry of Law. The Tax Bench has already disposed about 3000 notices of motion and another 3,000 notices of motion may be pending for condonation of delay. If this trend continues it is very unfortunate that the courts precious time will be devoted only for hearing of notices of motion of tax department and court may not have the time to deal with important tax matters. This will increase the pendency before the High Court.
When pendency increases the questions will be raised in the Parliament that as the High Court is not able to dispose the tax matters for years hence they have to go ahead with the proposed National Tax Tribunal. One may have to consider: Why delay in filing of appeal in most of the cases? Is it really worth filing of belated appeals before the court? And who is accountable for delay?
If High Court dismisses 70% of notices of motions; i.e., 4200, apart from tax revenue, actual expenditure will be at least 4.20 crores on stamp papers and another 4.20 crores will be for drafting and representing etc. All this expenses are met out of the tax-payers money. Why tax-payers money should be spent on such an unproductive purpose. More than 16,000 appeals are filed every year before the Tribunal by the tax department. There is no delay. Why there is delay in filing appeals to the High Court?
This requires serious consideration of the Government.
We hope tax administration will take some remedial measures.
Dr. K. SHIVARAM
Editor-in-Chief AIFTP
Our Constitution provides for an independent and efficient justice delivery system. No doubt there are delays in disposing the tax matters. On analysing the causes for delay one will find that delay is not because of courts but it is due to tax administration. In tax matters 70% of appeals are by tax department.
The judgement of the Delhi Bench of the Tribunal in 
1. The State Commission, Delhi, by its order dated 10-3-2006 in Appeal No. 1815 of 2000 held that the services rendered by the Lawyer would not come within the ambit of Section 2(1)(o) of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, as the client executes the power of attorney authorizing the Counsel to do certain acts on his behalf and there is no term of contract as to the liability of the lawyer in case he fails to do any such act. The State Commission further observed that it is a unilateral contract executed by the client giving authority to the lawyer to appear and represent the matter on his behalf without any specific assurance or undertaking.
There is a popular commercial by a furniture maker running on television which uses a courtroom as the setting to demonstrate the long-lasting abilities of its plywood. Two young lawyers are arguing a matter about a buffalo which apparently caused damages to the Plaintiff, prompting him to seek damages from the owner of the buffalo. The Respondent’s demand is that the buffalo, being the alleged culprit, must be produced in court as a witness, leading to an uproar in the court and prompting the judge to adjourn the matter. Months turn to years and decades go by and the lawyers and the judge, now sprightly octogenarians, are still at the same stage at which they were at the beginning of the case. The plywood table stands mute spectator to the going-ons in the court room with the voice-over saying tongue-in-cheek “Chalta Rahe, Chalta Rahe” (It goes on and on). 
Indian businessmen have made a remarkable achievements in the global business scenario, however, Indian professionals are yet to make the presence felt in the global scenario. Bar Council of India does not permit to have a partnership with chartered accountants profession or company secretaries. In the era of globalization apart from knowing the law, issues relating to Accountancy and Companies Act are very much essential for the mergers and acquisition. Therefore it is the time to think, why not permit all three professionals to come together and render the services under one umbrella. For appearing before the Court it can be stated that only lawyer partner can represent similarly, for audit certificate can be given by Chartered Accountant, and procedure relating to Companies Act may be handled by the Company Secretary. If all three professionals are allowed to have partnership it will help to render better services and Indian professionals can meet the challenges of global competition. A thought for debate and consideration!
We are still waiting with bated breath for the new Income-tax Code which was supposed to be released by December 2007. The Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said that the Code is an exercise of the future and is not aimed at amending the existing Income Tax Act 1961. “This report is about a brand new Income Tax Act, which if all goes well, will come into force from Apr 1, 2008, that is assessments made for 2009-10,” he said. He added that the new Act would hopefully come into force from April 2008 subject to Parliament approving it “well in time”. 