-
Jul 25, 2024
-
No intent to subdue the capital market, but “normalisation” is due
A day after the Union Budget 2024-25 was tabled in Parliament proposing a slew of changes in the rates of different taxes, and heightened effort to ease compliance, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) chairman Ravi Agarwal spoke to Priyansh Verma on the rationale behind some of these measures. Defending the revamping of the capital gains tax regime, he said the government wanted to “normalise the exponential growth in transactions.” He also said as of now, “no discussion is on” regarding discontinuing the old personal income tax regime. Excerpts:
Q. What is the intended outcome of the proposed comprehensive review of the IT Act? How will it differ from the draft Direct Tax Code prepared by the government in terms of tax policies and procedures?
A. Simplification in terms of provisions, cutting redundancies, making the language simpler, and aligning it with technology are some of the aspects we’re looking at. The Direct Tax Code is a term, but what it essentially means, is coming up with regulations, which ease compliance burden of taxpayers, and subsequently reduces litigation.
Q. Experts have suggested use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for resolving disputes…
A. We’re open to introducing AI, but it’s easier said than done. However, we’re working on it. At present, some provisions are already there in the Act, for instance, bunching of appeals on the same issue for simultaneous resolution. We are trying to take the help of AI for that purpose.
|