NITI Aayog moots decriminalisation of several tax offences

Government think tank NITI Aayog on Friday proposed the decriminalisation of several tax-related administrative, technical or procedural offences and recommended civil and monetary penalties for the same.

- Snehashish Roy

NITI Aayog, in a report titled “Towards India’s Tax Transformation: Decriminalisation and Trust-Based Governance”, said the Income Tax Act, 2025, marks significant progress, omitting 13 offences (such as failures in administrative notifications by company liquidators or receivers), but continues to criminalise 35 actions and omissions across 13 provisions.

“All these offences are punishable with imprisonment and fine, and for 25 of them, the Act prescribes mandatory minimum imprisonment terms. While these measures are intended to safeguard state revenue and deter evasion, the continuing breadth of criminalisation, compounded by a presumption of culpable mental state, signals an ongoing reliance on criminal law as a routine enforcement tool rather than a targeted last resort,” it said.