Govt forms panel to simplify I-T Act

Jaswinder Singh Baidwan

Akhran da mureed
Staff member
The government has set up a committee to simplify provisions of the Income Tax Act and given it a mandate to identify clauses that lead to litigations and suggest modifications to bring predictability and certainty in tax laws.
This was stated by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today on the sidelines of the launch of an “e-Sahyog” pilot project, which reduces the need for the taxpayer to physically appear before tax authorities.
Jaitley said the main reason for forming the panel was to make the I-T Act simpler. “We have over the last few months been resolving a lot of past issues. Now the time has come to look into some provisions of the I-T Act to see how their drafting quality can be improved to avoid ambiguity so that everybody is certain as to what the Act says,” he said.
The committee will also study and identify the provisions which are impacting the ease-of-doing business as well as identify the areas and provisions of the Act for simplification in the light of the existing jurisprudence. The terms of reference of the committee also include giving suggestions on “alternatives and modifications to the existing provisions and areas so identified to bring predictability and certainty in tax laws without substantial impact on the tax base and revenue collection.”
The committee to simplify the Income Tax Act will be headed by former Delhi HC judge RV Easwar. He has been asked to submit a preliminary report by January 31 so as to help incorporate some of them in the Budget for 2016-17.
 
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