A modified Direct Taxes Code (DTC) Bill is to be placed in Parliament for approval after incorporating changes as per the suggestions made by the Standing Committee on Finance.
“[We] will come out with [a] modified DTC [Bill] in response to Standing Committee suggestions,” Advisor to Finance Minister Parthasarathi Shome said at a FICCI event here. Dr. Shome informed industry leaders that the Finance Ministry was looking at the Bill, and working on the tax structures, as was suggested by the Parliamentary panel.
In its report on the DTC Bill submitted to Parliament in March last year, the standing panel on finance headed by former Finance Minister and senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha had suggested a hike in the income tax exemption limit to Rs.3 lakh as against Rs.2 lakh proposed in the original DTC Bill. The Bill, tabled in August, 2010, was referred to the standing panel for scrutiny.
Among other things, the committee had also suggested that subsequent tax slabs be accordingly adjusted to provide relief to the taxpayers who were already burdened under the impact of inflation.
“We are trying to see what could be the best in terms of transparency so that issues that are hurting industry could be covered adequately,” Dr Shome said while noting that the Finance Ministry was also engaged in addressing the issue of expenditure control which remained a major challenge.