After overhauling the indirect taxes through the rollout of Goods and Services Tax (GST), the government has set its sight on the direct taxes and constituted a task force for redrafting the 50-year-old income tax law in sync with the economic needs of the country. The panel has been tasked to draft a direct tax legislation keeping in view the tax system prevalent in various countries, the international best practices and economic needs of the country. The task force will submit its report to the government within six months
The six-member task force will have Arbind Modi, CBDT Member (Legislation) as the Convener and other members, including Girish Ahuja (chartered accountant), Rajiv Memani (Chairman and Regional Managing Partner of EY) and Mansi Kedia (Consultant, ICRIER). Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian will be a permanent special invitee in the task force.
Earlier in September, at the annual conference of tax officers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the Income-tax Act was drafted in 1961, which is more than 50 years old and it needed redrafting. Seeking to replace the existing I-T Act, the UPA government had in 2009 too come out with Direct Taxes Code (DTC) to simplify the tax legislation for individual taxpayers as well as corporate, but the DTC Bill, 2010, which was introduced in Parliament in 2010, lapsed with the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha.