The four-month samadhan scheme had so far garnered only Rs 650 crore tax revenue as it started picking up very late, that too in the last 20 days. Major industries in textiles, steel and auto were hit by recession and they were unable to meet the liability under scheme, he said.

Meanwhile, revenue field officers had also recommended that the deadline be extended beyond December 31 as collections have started picking up only in the last few days.

Janarthanan also indicated that samadhan type of scheme would become an annual feature without which it was difficult to mop up tax arrears running into Rs 52,000 crore.

There were as many as 2000 cases where the tax arrears was more than Rs one crore each. Unless the scheme, which is an effective tool in arrestinggrowth of parallel economy, was held over a period of four to five years, it would not be possible to garner the huge tax dues.

"It (samadhan) will be an annual feature,'' Janarthanan said adding government could not fix targets this year for mopping up tax under the scheme but next year onwards "we will have targets for samadhan".

Originally the revenue department had expected to garner Rs 1,500 crore tax arrears. Till December 28, as many as 22,000 applications, involving Rs 1900 crore, had been received that would lead to collection of tax arrears of Rs 650 crore.

The scheme had provided for two months' time for payment of tax dues and, with the extension of the scheme by a month, tax dues can now be paid till March 31.

In Calcutta, Central Board of Excise and Customs chairman S D Mohile also said the scheme had been extended till January 31 and that the scheme was expected to generate Rs 1000 crore tax revenue.

Just before the Cabinet decision on Tuesday night, a finance ministry release hadcategorically said there would be no extension of the scheme beyond December 31 and that an action plan had been put in place with legal backing to come down heavily against tax defaulters not availing of the scheme.

Janarthanan also said tax department would issue permanent account numbers (PAN) to all applicants by March 31 in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. In case of Calcutta it might take some more time, he said.

As against 1.38 crore income tax payers, there were 1.5 lakh PAN applicants indicating that the scheme had helped in widening the tax net, he said.