CBDT constitutes committee to review media policy

CBDT has constituted a new committee to "review" the existing media policy for communicating the activities of the board and the income tax department to the public.
The nine-member committee has been created under Central Board of Direct Taxes member Gopal Mukherjee and mandated to draft new set of guidelines for "regulating" the interaction of the department with journalists and media organisations, officials said.
They said newly-appointed CBDT chairperson Rani Singh Nair ordered the constitution of the committee, which has been asked to submit its report to the policy-making body of the I-T department by September 30.
The decision was taken, they said, in the backdrop of certain recommendations made by the field units of the department during the tax administrators conference held here recently.

The recommendations had sought an overhaul of the existing mechanism of information dissemination by the CBDT in the new emerging scenario when the tax department was increasingly moving towards rendering the role of facilitator to the taxpayers.
Under the current scheme of things, a commissioner rank officer of the department officiates as the spokesperson of the CBDT who is tasked to interact with mediapersons.
The CBDT has six members apart from the chairperson and is responsible for framing policy and administrative issues related to direct taxes and the income tax department.