A Show Of One-Upmanship?

The Finance Bill Manages to Sneak in Some Harsh Provisions Despite Criticism. 
 

- Dipak Mondal

While debating on the Finance Bill, 2017, in the Rajya Sabha, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, referring to the changes made in Section 132 of the Income-tax Act, said that particular section was tax terrorism multiplied by ten.

“If Vodafone was tax terrorism, Section 132 is tax jihad because what you have done is, you have removed 'reason to believe', you have removed 'reason to suspect', and given untrammelled powers to a tax bureaucracy and a tax administration whose credibility is suspect in the eyes of the public,” he quipped.

Ramesh’s view on (the changes made in) Section 132, which deals with search and seizure operations, has been seconded by many, although not as emphatically. The reason behind the low-key reaction could be the sweeping power that the changes in the section give to tax authorities. Earlier, reasons for search and seizure by the tax department had to be disclosed to taxpayers. But now the Finance Bill bars tax authorities from disclosing the reason to taxpayers or the appellate tribunal. A person subjected to a tax raid, can only know the reason by filing a writ petition in the High Court.

Responding to queries on this issue in the Rajya Sabha, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the change was necessary to protect the ‘source’ of the information. Clearly, members of the Upper House were not convinced and they moved an amendment, which was also adopted, only to be junked when the Lok Sabha passed the Bill.

Tax and legal experts, who have always complained about the extortionist ways of the tax authorities, are clearly not impressed by this move of the government, especially as tax terrorism was one of the pre-poll agendas of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). But not many will openly criticise the government.