“We had very in depth interactions with the ministry…. I need to say I discovered them open minded. A overwhelming majority of the strategies that the committee endorsed, additionally they agreed with,” Panda advised ET in an interview.
The panel submitted a 4,575-page report in Lok Sabha final Monday together with a draft invoice with round 285 modifications to the invoice launched by the federal government. It has urged reinstating a provision on deduction in respect of inter-corporate dividends amongst substantive modifications, whereas retaining the provisions associated to look and seizures, on which the panel acquired a number of representations.
“There have been a number of representations, all based mostly on misunderstanding and misinformation,” Panda stated, including that search and seizure provisions apply solely to 0.01% of taxpayers. He stated there have been courtroom judgements, inner circulars, and these couldn't be carried out subjectively, whimsically, or to focus on any individual.
“A number of standards should be met for a search and seizure to be authorised and that is already nicely established in legislation,” he stated.
The present Act, he stated, was written in 1961 when there have been no computer systems. “However even then, the precept was clear that on a duly authorised search and seizure, if any individual is non-cooperative, like if they've a secure which they refuse to open, then the authorities are entitled to interrupt a lock and entry… The identical precept has been prolonged to digital info,” he stated.”No new powers have been granted. It's precisely the identical factor, simply simplified,” Panda stated.He stated the committee's mandate was to not change coverage, to not change tax charges, to not change applicability of sure sorts of taxes or revenue, however to make sure that the underlying tax code is easy.
“That is the primary huge bang main reform,” he stated. “Our committee had a really, very laborious schedule. We had been assembly on two full days each week for the final 5 months. And we had greater than 125 hours of witness hearings and huge numbers of written submissions from all around the nation.”
Panda stated he's hopeful concerning the invoice getting handed within the monsoon session of parliament.
On considerations about privateness, he stated, “I believe a few of these considerations have been misrepresented in some sections…”
On the philosophy behind substantive modifications urged, he stated, the panel's mandate was clear that the invoice must be straightforward to grasp and simple to adjust to, in order that there are lesser disputes.
“We should give credit score to the ministry for decreasing the phrase rely by 50%, however the final goal just isn't brevity, the last word goal is readability,” he stated, including that the panel in a handful of instances really urged going again to the unique wording. “It is barely longer, however it's clearer. For instance, a few of the charitable belief…represented to us that… there's some ambiguity within the shortened wording, so we most popular to return,” he added.
On revisiting sure definitions, he stated in some instances, the definitions differed throughout ministries. “One of many strategies is that MSME is now a well-understood idea. There's a separate act for it and the identical pointers can be utilized as an alternative of getting completely different pointers for what's MSME,” he stated.
Meals for thought
Panda stated the panel acquired a number of strategies on coverage modifications. “If you happen to undergo all of the pages, these over 4,000 pages should not all of the Act and report. It incorporates a number of annexures with a number of strategies. They've given me a number of meals for thought. I'm certain they've given meals for thought to all of the members of the committee and likewise to the federal government and others.”
