To reduce litigation, facilitate ease of doing business and to remove long pending grievances of taxpayers in the matters of direct/ indirect taxes, the Govt. has decided to raise threshold monetary limits for filing Departmental Appeals before the Appellate Tribunals (ITAT/ CESTAT), High Courts and Supreme Court, as under:
GOI Press Release dt. 8 August 2019
Monetary limits for filing of appeals by Income Tax Department further enhanced by CBDT
There is a substantial pendency of appeals of the Income Tax Department before various appellate fora. The CBDT is aware of the importance of litigation management and has been continuously working towards achieving the same.
To effectively reduce taxpayer grievances/litigation and help the Department focus on litigation involving complex legal issues and high tax effect, the monetary limits for filing of appeals by the Department were last revised on 11th July,2018 vide CBDT Circular No.3 of 2018. As a step towards further management of litigation by the Government, the monetary limits for filing Departmental appeals before various appellate fora including ITAT, High Court & Supreme Court have been revised as under:
| Appellate Forum | Existing Monetary Limit(Rs.) | Revised Monetary Limit(Rs.) |
| Before Income Tax Appellate Tribunal | 20,00,000 | 50,00,000 |
| Before High Court | 50,00,000 | 1,00,00,000 |
| Before Supreme Court | 1,00,00,000 | 2,00,00,000 |
This will further reduce time, effort and resources presently deployed in litigation to focus on issues involving litigation of substantial value.
GOI Press Release dt. 11 July 2017
In order to reduce the long pending grievances of taxpayers and to minimise litigations pertaining to tax matters and to facilitate the Ease of Doing Business, Government of India has decided to increase the threshold monetary limits for filing Departmental Appeals at various levels, be it Appellate Tribunals, High Courts and the Supreme Court in the following manner :-
| Appeal Forum | Present limit for filing appeal (Rs.) | Enhanced limit (Rs.) |
| ITAT / CESTAT | 10 lakhs | 20 lakhs |
| High Courts | 20 lakhs | 50 lakhs |
| Supreme Court | 25 lakhs | 1 Crore |
This is a major step in the direction of litigation management of both direct and indirect taxes as it will effectively reduce minor litigations and help the Department to focus on high value litigations.
In case of CBDT, out of total cases filed by the Department in ITAT, 34% of cases will be withdrawn. In case of High Courts, 48% of cases will be withdrawn and in case of Supreme Court 54% of cases will be withdrawn. The total percentage of reduction of litigation from Department’s side will get reduced by 41%. However, this will not apply in such cases where substantial point of law is involved.
Similarly, in case of CBIC, out of total cases filed by the Department in CESTAT, 16% of cases will be withdrawn. In case of High Courts, 22% of cases will be withdrawn and in case of Supreme Court 21% of cases will be withdrawn. The total percentage of reduction of litigation from Department’s side will get reduced by 18%. However, this will not apply in such cases where substantial point of law is involved.
This step will also reduce future litigation flow from the Department side.
Accordingly, the CBDT and CBIC have issued the requisite instructions as under:
CBIC Instructions dt. 11 July 2017
CBDT Circular No. 3/2018 Income Tax dt. 11 July 2018