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Reconstituting the task force formed earlier to review the Income-Tax Act and to draft a new direct tax law, the Finance Ministry on Monday appointed Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Member Akhilesh Ranjan as the new convenor of the panel. The committee will submit its report by February 28, the CBDT said in a statement. Other five members of the committee will remain same as before, it said.
The reconstitution of the panel comes after the task force formed last year to frame new direct tax legislation did not submit its final report, which was due by September-end, to the Finance Ministry. The convenor of the panel, then CBDT Member Arbind Modi, retired on September 30, which left the report of the task force in limbo. The February 28 deadline for the new committee assumes significance as it will be after presentation of the likely interim Budget presentation on February 1 and before general elections slated later next year.
The earlier task force is learnt to have prepared a draft report but a final submission was not made. It is learnt that the convenor of the task force, Modi, was given a time slot on September 26 to make a formal presentation to Finance Ministry but the meeting had got called off. Also, fissures had appeared between the six members of the panel and most members did not send their comments to the convenor on the draft version.
The government had constituted the earlier task force in November 2017.
Other members of the panel include Girish Ahuja, practicing chartered accountant and non-official director, State Bank of India, Rajiv Memani, chairman & regional managing partner of E&Y, Mukesh Patel, practicing tax advocate, Ahmedabad, Mansi Kedia, consultant, ICRIER and former IRS officer and advocate GC Srivastava. Former Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian was a permanent invitee to the task force.
“In partial modification of the earlier order, the Government has appointed Akhilesh Ranjan, Member (Legislation), CBDT as Convenor of the Task Force. Other members of the Task Force remain unchanged. The Task Force shall submit its report to the Government by February 28, 2019,” the statement said.
The earlier panel was initially supposed to submit its report by May 22, 2018. On May 22, the ministry extended term of the task force till August 22. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during the annual conference of tax officers in September last year, had observed that the Income-tax Act, 1961, was drafted more than 50 years ago and it needs to be redrafted.
FM meets industry leaders
Ahead of the interim Budget and general elections early next year, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday held a closed-door meeting with industry captains to discuss the current economic environment and the steps being taken by the government to address emerging issues. The meeting was organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
