CBDT chairman Ravi Agarwal, on Thursday, urged income tax officers to expedite the backlog of pending income tax appeals and cases as the department gears up to make the transition under the new income tax legislation, replacing the over six-decade-old Income Tax Act of 1961.

“We must acknowledge the concerns surrounding appeal pendency. This issue has attracted criticism, and rightly so. It is time for our appellate functionaries, that is, commissioner appeals and joint commissioner appeals, to treat this not as a clerical backlog but a critical element of taxpayer service. Each pending appeal is a taxpayer waiting for closure. I urge all the appellate officers to take the challenge with renewed seriousness and strategic planning,” Agarwal said in a video message to the department officials played at the Income Tax Day celebrations in Calcutta.

Last month, in a conclave of principal chief commissioners of income tax in New Delhi, chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, litigation management was a key point of discussion.

Of the pending 5.77 lakh appeals, over 2.25 lakh appeals are targeted for completion in FY26, addressing over ₹10 lakh crore of disputed demand.

Agarwal also said that the department’s NUDGE (non-intrusive usage of data to guide and enable taxpayers) campaign, backed by technology and data, has received encouraging results.

The department has received a declaration of foreign assets worth ₹29,208 crore and foreign income of more than ₹1,000 crore.