GAAR panel to put forward draft recommendation by Aug 31

The General Anti Avoidance Rules (GAAR) panel chaired by Parthasarathi Shome has agreed to submit its draft recommendations by August 31 and its report by September 30, 2012. The GAAR panel was set up by Prime Minister to deal with fresh consultations on the controversial tax issue.

The GAAR, which was proposed in the Budget 2012-13, and was postponed till April 2013 following strong opposition by foreign investors. The implementation was postponed by a year for wider consultation before bringing it into force. The first draft GAAR guidelines, prepared by the finance ministry, were placed in the public domain on June 29 to facilitate comments from various stakeholders.

Shome confirmed that the consultation process is very intense and it has met few policy makers and interacted with several international and domestic tax-advisory firms, and some concerned industrialists, with the aim to address the concerns faced them and elevate it to international guidelines standard.