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Odisha: Tax dues of Rs 3,292 cr locked up in courts

Dues have piled up since litigations in 7,697 cases pertaining to recovery of tax arrears are pending

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BS Reporter Bhubaneswar
Commercial tax arrears of the Odisha government have mounted to Rs 3292.43 crore (till December 2013).

The dues have piled up since litigations in 7697 cases pertaining to recovery of tax arrears are pending in different courts of law.

"The Odisha High Court is yet to decide on 1499 cases of commercial tax dues worth Rs 1324.90 crore. As many as 205 cases worth Rs 236.40 crore are pending in the Supreme Court.

The highest pendency is in the Odisha Sales Tax tribunal where 5993 cases for recovery of tax arrears to the tune of Rs 1731.13 crore are yet to be disposed off”, said a written statement to the state assembly by finance minister Prasanna Acharya.

To speed up recovery of dues, the state government has engaged counsels in the Supreme Court, High Court as well as the Sales tax tribunal.

A special cell has been formed within the office of the commercial tax commissioner to expedite recovery of arrears.Among the corporates with commercial tax arrears are Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), ITC Ltd, Paradeep Phosphates Ltd (PPL), OCL India Ltd, Indian Rare Earth Ltd (IREL), Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd, Sree Metaliks Ltd and Tata Sponge Iron Ltd to name a few.
 

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First Published: Feb 11 2014 | 8:18 PM IST

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