Government deliberating Shome panel recommendations: Arun Jaitley

New Delhi, Jan 25: The government was deliberating the recommendations of the Parthasarathi Shome Committee or the Tax Administration Reform Commission (TARC), Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said here on Monday. The TARC made several recommendations to make tax administration payer friendly and make the administration accountable.

The government was looking into the recommendations of TARC and also the R.V. Easwar Committee set up to simplify the Income Tax Act, Jaitley said at the platinum jubilee celebrations of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal.
He stressed that the law must be simple so that the chances of litigations are low even if the tax assesses are large in numbers.

Interestingly, the Shome panel had said that its recommendations have to be implemented in full and cherry-picking will not bring in the expected results. The Shome Committee had suggested abolition of the post of revenue secretary as it found the post does not merit presence in the modern tax administration.

The Easwar Committee appointed to examine simplification of income tax laws had recommended raising the threshold limits for deduction of tax at source (TDS) as also slashing the rate of withholding tax. The panel said nearly 65 percent of the personal income tax collected in India was through TDS, whose provisions need to be made less “tedious”, as they have remained over the years, and more tax friendly.

The committee proposed raising the threshold for TDS to Rs.15,000 from Rs.2,500 annually and reducing the tax rate to 5 percent for interest on securities.

For other interest earnings, it recommended raising the limit to Rs.15,000 from the present Rs.10,000 for bank deposits, and Rs.5,000 for others. (IANS)