New Direct Taxes Code – Board Constitutes Committee to examine suggestions
Has the Board finally taken control of the new Direct Taxes Code? TIOL had reported that the Code had actually gone ahead bypassing the Board. Now the Board, in its meeting on 27 th August, decided that:-
(i) Suggestions will be invited from all the officers and the public regarding the Direct Taxes Code. Suggestions will be invited through the Cadre controlling CCITs and also directly from the officers through irsofficersonline.
(ii) The suggestions has to be received by the core Committee by 10th September and a draft based on suggestions and their studies will be prepared by the core Committee by 15th September which will be put before the full Board for consideration
(iii) The final suggestions as approved by the full Board shall be placed before the Finance Minister.
So you have all of TEN DAYS time to submit your suggestions to the Core Committee and they have full FIVE DAYS to submit their report to the Board!
Are they really serious about getting suggestions from their officers and the Public? Most probably the Communication from the Board will reach the field formations by 7 th of September and then they will have exactly three days to send in their suggestions. It would have been more practical to direct that the suggestions may be sent directly to the Waste Paper Basket of the Board!
The Board Communication says that the suggestions may be sent by email to diritcc-rev@nic.in
But the Discussion Paper on the Code states that you can send your suggestions to directtaxescode-rev@nic.in
Now which of these mail ids are valid? We hope both of them are!
In his Foreword to the Code, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee stated,
“I invite all members of the Public to go through this draft and share their valuable suggestions with us. I am sure through our collective effort, we will be able to build a consensus and finalise this Draft Code so that we can present it to Parliament in the Winter Session, 2009 for enacting a Direct Taxes Code for the 21st Century which will be compatible with the needs of a fast developing economy.”
We hope and pray that the code is not rushed through in Parliament and there is a genuine debate. Most probably it will be referred to the Standing Committee.
TIOL will be happy to get your comments on the Code, which will be compiled and submitted to the Ministry/Board.
Today we are carrying yet another analysis on the Code in our TIOL TOP
CBDT F.No. 402/78/2009-ITCC Dated : August 28, 2009