Modi Govt may be planning to overhaul direct taxes next

The Modi Government may overhaul direct taxes law covering income and corporation tax before end of its term in 2019. 

After demonetisation and GST, the BJP-led NDA government is reportedly planing for yet another major economic change. 

According to a report, the government has now set its sights on overhauling the 56-year-old direct taxes law as it seeks to make the Indian regime more contemporary and tailor it to current requirements. 

The government is expected to bring a draft legislation before next budget and may seek to pass it by the end of the term, even as it may chose not to implement it. 

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Sources told an Englsh daily, that the plan is to have the draft legislation ready by the Budget before it is put out for public comments. 

With general elections due in 2019, the government is unlikely to move to the new regime at the start of 2019-20 financial year, but may want to complete the ground work, the report said.

The report added at the orginal plan to set up a task force to write the new tax law was first made in 2009 by Pranab Mukherjee. However, Direct Taxes Code or DTC, prepared by P Chidambaram and his team, was diluted in years to come. 

The Bill was never legislated and the Narendra Modi government had dropped plans to rewrite the Income Tax Act as it got down to removing the clutter in indirect tax through goods and services tax (GST), it said. 

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