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Govt sets up panel on direct tax

The government on Monday set up a task force on direct taxes for rationalising and simplifying procedures while strengthening enforcement to improve revenue mop up.

The task force headed by Advisor to Finance Minister, Vijay Kelkar, would submit its recommendation in a draft consultation paper by October end and a final report by December 15 after incorporating feedback from the public.

The recommendations of the task force would be considered by the government before framing the Budget for 2003-04.

"The objective is to use the state-of-the-art technology to adopt best international practices so as to reduce compliance costs," the finance ministry said in a statement.

An outcome of finance minister's commitment, the terms of reference of the task force would be to work out ways for simplification and rationalisation of tax laws and procedures to minimise exemptions and remove anomalies while improving equity.

It will strive to improve services to taxpayers so as to reduce compliance cost, impart transparency and facilitate voluntary compliance, while redesigning procedures for strengthening enforcement so as to improve compliance of direct tax laws and look into other related matters.

The 11-member task force would also be represented by economist Ashok Lahiri, former chief commissioner of Income Tax S N L Agarwala, advocate of Bombay high court Arvind Sonde, P C Parmar and Dipankar Chaterjee (chartered accountants), Omkar Goswami (Confederation of Indian Industry), Urjit Patel (Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation ), S Ananthanara (Amco Batteries) and T V Mohandas Pai (Infosys). A J Majumdar, Joint Secretary in Central Board of Direct Taxes, has been appointed as the member secretary.

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