Income Tax Litigation Backlog: Pending Income Tax Cases Touch 539,000 for FY 2025

At the end of Financial Year 2024-25, India recorded 539,863 income tax cases that are still pending before the appellate authorities for a final decision. The Minister of State for Finance, Pankaj Choudhary, informed the parliament that these pending disputes involve tax claims of Rs 16.75 lakh crore.

As per the data produced in the Rajya Sabha, the number of pending cases before the first appellate state has increased from 448,992 in FY2020-21 to 548,278 in FY2023-24. In the last few years, the amount of tax under dispute saw ups and downs. It fell from Rs 24.52 lakh crore in FY 2020-21 to Rs 14.18 lakh crore in FY 2021-22. After that, over the next three financial years, the disputed tax value again went up to more than Rs 16 lakh crore.

The data presented in the parliament also shows the pending appeals at the higher judicial forums, including the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), High Courts and Supreme Court. The ITAT recorded 22,960 pending appeals at the end of FY 2024-25, with the disputed tax claim amounting to Rs 3.64 lakh crore.

In FY 2021-21, the pending cases before the High Court increased by 31,971 to 38,099 in FY 2023-24, but the value under dispute increased by 34,486 cases in the given year period from Rs 2.75 lakh crore to Rs 5.65 lakh crore. On the other hand, the Supreme Court had 6,338 pending cases involving Rs 25,403 crore.

These large numbers show that income tax litigation in India is still heavily piled up. This is happening even though the government has introduced measures like faceless appeals and dispute settlement schemes such as Vivad se Vishwas to reduce disputes and speed up resolution.

The ministry informed that the disputed information is maintained at the different appellate levels, without giving the timelines for the disposal.