Govt pulls I-T Bill, fresh draft on Monday

Revised Income-Tax Bill to simplify provisions, drop obsolete clauses

- Rajeev Jayaswal & Saubhadra Chatterj

The government has withdrawn the Income-Tax Bill that was introduced in the Lok Sabha on February 13 to introduce a new version of the legislation on Monday, which will incorporate “most of the recommendations” proposed by the Select Committee of Parliament that reviewed it, an official said.

The official, who did not wish to be named, added that the Income-Tax Bill, 2025 has been withdrawn “to avoid confusion by multiple versions of the Bill and to provide a clear and updated version with all changes incorporated”. The new version of the Bill will be introduced for the consideration of the House on Monday, he added.

To be sure, this is standard practice in the case of bills where several changes have been made.

The Income Tax Bill aims to simplify the language of the current law and remove obsolete provisions, he said. Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 13 introduced the Bill in Lok Sabha and referred it to a Select Committee. The speaker constituted the committee on February 14 under the chairmanship of BJP lawmaker Baijayant Panda. The 3l-member panel submitted a 4,584-page report on July 21 with 566 observations.