The ministry appointed CBDT member Akhilesh Ranjan as the head of the task force which is drafting a new direct tax law
The finance ministry on Monday said the task force set up to simplify the current tax laws will submit its report by February 28.
The ministry appointed Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) member Akhilesh Ranjan as the head of the task force which is drafting a new direct tax law.
“In partial modification of the earlier order, the government has appointed Akhilesh Ranjan, member (legislation), CBDT as convenor of the task force. Other members of the task force remain unchanged,” the ministry said in a statement.
In November last year, the finance ministry set up a six-member task force to draft a new direct tax law to replace the existing Income-tax Act, 1961, which was drafted over 50 years ago.
Ranjan will replace Arbind Modi who retired on September 30. He is likely to convene a meeting of the task force in a week. The report of the task force could not be finalised during Modi’s tenure.
Speaking to DNA Money, Ranjan said, “I’m yet to absorb the mandate of the task force. I will consult with the other members and start the work at the earliest.”
Other members of the task force include chartered accountant Girish Ahuja, EY chairman and regional managing partner Rajiv Memani, tax lawyer Mukesh Patel, retired IRS officer G C Srivastava and Mansi Kedia, a consultant at Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations.
The central government will be presenting its interim Budget for 2018-19 before Parliament on February 1.
The full Budget would be presented after the Lok Sabha elections due sometime in the middle of next year.
PM Narendra Modi, during the annual conference of tax officers in September last year, had observed that the Income-tax Act, 1961 was drafted more than 50 years ago and it needs to be redrafted.
Thereafter, a task force was assigned to draft direct tax laws in line with the norms prevalent in other countries, incorporating international best practices and keeping in mind the economic needs of the country.
The panel was initially supposed to submit its report to the government within six months, i.e, by May 22, 2018.
On May 22, the finance ministry extended the term of the task force by another three months till August 22. The committee did not submit the report within that deadline as well.
Former finance minister P Chidambaram had in 2009 proposed the original direct tax code to replace the cumbersome IT law with a clean new law and to embody the principle of keeping taxes low and removing exemptions.
The NDA government, since coming to power in 2014, has already implemented the general anti-avoidance rule. In 2016, finance minister Arun Jaitley also promised to lower corporate tax rate to 25% in five years.
Currently, income up to Rs 2.5 lakh per annum is exempt from tax for individuals.
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