Chain reaction

How did the retrospective amendment and other intrusive changes in tax law proposed in this year’s Budget come about? According to North Block insiders, the opposition uproar over black money provided Central Board of Direct Taxes officials a perfect reason to press for changes that give them unprecedented discretionary powers. The old reasoning that fear induces evaders to pay was set out before senior bureaucrats and the finance minister before the Budget — and the rest was easy since these senior officials and the finance minister also understood that resisting such suggestions could lay them open to doubt.