The government on Wednesday allowed a 15-day extension to the task force for submitting its report on new direct tax law, agreeing to requests of new members of the panel who needed more time to provide further inputs. The report will now be submitted on August 16.

The panel is tasked with bringing the new direct tax code in consonance with economic need of the country, and will replace the 58-year-old existing Income Tax Act, 1961. It’s original terms of reference included drafting the code in view of direct tax systems across various countries, international best practices and economic needs of the country.

In June, the panel had inducted three new members including incoming chief economic advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian and a joint secretary in the finance ministry.

At the same time, the panel’s terms of reference were widened to include areas of faceless assessment, litigation management, process simplification and sharing of information among GST, customs, CBDT and the financial intelligence unit (FIU) among others.

The task force was first constituted in November 2017 under the chairmanship of then CBDT member Arbind Modi. However, a year later, it was reconstituted under the new board member Akhilesh Ranjan after Modi superannuated.

Source : Financial Express