The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has said in a new report that the Income Tax (I-T) has not taken effective steps to resolve the issue of growing tax arrears in the country, which have grown to the level of Rs. 2.3 lakh crore in the last five years.

The amount of outstanding tax dues as of March 2010 is as much as half of the total collection of direct tax for the 2009-10, amounting to Rs. 4.35 lakh. The report from the CAG, which is tabled in Parliament on Friday, shows that the IT department has not acted promptly to collect outstanding dues that are not linked to any dispute.

The report said that the assessing officers did not provide information to tax recovery officers (TROs) in more than 1,54,000 cases, even after a year of completion of assessment.

The report also noted incidences when the TROs had asked for information to take further information but no files were provided by the IT department officials. On the other hand, the report found TROs to be inefficient too.

The annual disposal of tax recovery certificates for the TROs was found to be much below the 1,200 certificates per annum fixed by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).