Another few hundred words needed for I-T Bill clarity

The Select Committee of the Lok Sabha devoted approximately 25,000 hours to reviewing the Income Tax Bill 2025, which is meant to replace the Income Tax Act that has become large and unwieldy over decades.

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It suggested a few taxpayer-friendly changes, including provisions on inter-corporate dividend deductions, loss carry-forward rules. Clarity on anonymous donations and return filing for refunds has also been proposed.

The committee's objective was to achieve clarity, not brevity, its chairperson Baijayant Panda tells Prasanta Sahu. Excerpts:

The Committee has undertaken an exercise, unlike the drafters of the Bill, and examined it clause by clause. The I-T department spent nearly 60,000 human hours drafting the Bill. How much time did you spend on fine-tuning it further?