New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday set up a high-level committee under former Delhi High Court judge Justice R.V. Easwar to suggest simplification of Income Tax (I-T) laws. The report could form basis for tinkering with the controversial retrospective applicability of Income Tax Act.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley said that the main idea behind setting up the panel is to make the I-T Act more simple. “We have over the last few months been resolving a lot of past issues and now time has come to look at some provisions of the I-T Act to look at how their drafting quality can be improved in order to avoid ambiguity so that everybody is certain as to what the Act itself says,” he said.
The 10-member panel will study and identify the provisions/phrases in the Income Tax Act which are leading to litigation due to different interpretations. It will study and identify the provisions which are impacting the ease of doing business.
The committee will look into the areas and provisions of the IT act for simplification in the light of the existing jurisprudence. The panel will suggest alternatives and modifications to the existing provisions and areas to bring about predictability and certainty in tax laws without substantial impact on the tax base and revenue collection.
The committee can give its recommendations in batches. The first batch containing as many recommendations as possible shall be submitted by January 31, 2016, just in time for incorporating suggestions that need legislative approval in the Budget for 2016-17.
The term of the committee will be for a period of one year from the date of its constitution. The committee will set its own procedures for regulating its work. It can also work in sub-groups and the draft prepared by the sub-groups can then be approved by the whole committee.
The high-level committee will put its draft recommendations in the public domain. After stakeholder consultations, the committee will formalise its recommendations.
