Tax force on direct taxes gets more time to submit report

The finance ministry on Wednesday gave time till August 16 to the high-level task force formed to draft a new direct tax law to submit its report.

The task force, constituted by the government in November 2017 to review the existing Income Tax Act, 1961, and draft a new direct tax law in consonance with economic needs of the country, was required to submit its report by July 31.

"The government has allowed the task force to submit its report by 16th of August 2019, in light of the fact that the new members of the task force requested for more time to provide further inputs," the ministry said in a release.

Earlier, the task force was supposed to submit its report by May 31 but then finance minister Arun Jaitley gave two months' extension to complete the exercise.

The finance ministry in November last year appointed Akhilesh Ranjan, member (legislation) of CBDT, as convenor of the task force after the retirement of Arbind Modi.

Other members of the task force include Girish Ahuja (chartered accountant), Rajiv Memani (chairman and regional managing partner of EY), Mukesh Patel (practicing tax advocate), Mansi Kedia (consultant, ICRIER) and G C Srivastava (retired IRS and advocate).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during the annual conference of tax officers in September 2017, had observed that the Income Tax Act, 1961, was drafted more than 50 years ago and it needs to be redrafted.

The task force was assigned to draft direct tax laws in line with the norms prevalent in other countries, incorporating international best practices, and keeping in mind the economic needs of the country.