I-T bill to simplify tax framework: FM in LS

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday introduced the Income-Tax Bill, 2025 in the Lok Sabha aiming to abridge the bulky direct tax act and make it simple, and urged the speaker to refer it to a select committee of the House, a request that the Opposition objected to because it wants the bill to be referred to a standing committee.

- Rajeev Jayaswal

NEW DELHI:

The minister requested the speaker to determine the terms of reference for the committee and proposed that the panel should present its report by the first day of the next session. Unlike regular standing committees, select committees are appointed for a specific purpose and cease to exist when they finish the task assigned to them and submit a report.

Refuting charges that the proposed legislation is bulkier than the existing one, Sitharaman said that the Income-Tax Act, 1961 initially came into effect in 1962 with only 298 sections, but that over a period of six decades, "many more sections" were added in it, taking the total to 819 sections (along with about 1,200 provisos and 900 explanations that have been removed in the new bill).

Citing the number of words reduced from 512,535 in the existing act to 259,676 in the bill, the FM rejected the Opposition's charges that the proposed bill involved only mechanical changes. "They are not mechanical changes. Substantial changes are being made," she said, citing the number of chapters trimmed from 47 in the existing law to 23 in the bill.