Baijayant Jay Panda to head 31-member select committee to examine I-T Bill

The select committee of the Lok Sabha, which will examine the Income-Tax Bill, 2025, was constituted on Friday, with BJP MP Baijayant Jay Panda appointed as chairman of the panel.

The committee will have 31 MPs, including 17 from the ruling National Democratic Alliance. The NDA MPs include 14 from the BJP and one each from the TDP, JD(U), and the Shiv Sena.

The opposition parties have 13 MPs, including six from the Congress, two from the Samajwadi Party and one each from the DMK, the TMC, the Shiv Sena (UBT), the NCP (SP) and the RSP. One MP, Richard Vanlalhmangaiha, is from the Mizoram's ruling Zoram People's Movement.

Besides Panda, the BJP's members include Nishikant Dubey, P P Chaudhary, Bhartruhari Mahtab and Anil Baluni.

Opposition MPs include Deepender Singh Hooda of the Congress, Mahua Moitra of the TMC, Supriya Sule of the NCP (SP) and N K Premachandran of the RSP.

The panel is mandated to submit its report by the first day of the Monsoon session. The ongoing Budget Session will conclude on April 4 and the Monsoon session may commence in the third week of July.

While introducing the Bill in Lok Sabha on Thursday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman urged Speaker Om Birla Birla to refer the draft law to a select committee of the House.

The much-anticipated Bill will replace terminologies such as "assessment year" and "previous year" with the easier-to-understand "tax year" as part of a move to simplify language while removing provisos and explanations.