<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br />''</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Government raises threshold limit for filing appeals in tax cases. Stating this the Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said today that this step has been taken to bring down litigation by 41 per cent. </div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br />''</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">He  said the tax department can now file appeals in ITAT / CESTAT only if the tax amount involved is 20 lakh rupees or more, up from 10 lakh rupees at present.</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br />''</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Appeals would be filed in High Courts if the tax amount involved in litigation is 50 lakh rupees. For appeals in Supreme Court, the threshold limit has been hiked to one crore rupees.</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br />''</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">This step has been taken as about five lakh rupees have been struck in litigation. He said the move is to create trust in the tax administration and give relief to honest, small and mid-sized taxpayers.</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br />''</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">The Minister,said besides giving relief to taxpayers, the move is also based on premise that the cost of litigation is sometimes more than the recovery sought.</div>