BJP MP Baijayant Panda has been appointed to lead a 31-member Select Committee tasked with reviewing the newly introduced Income Tax Bill.
The bill, proposed by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, aims to replace the existing Income Tax Act of 1961, simplifying tax laws and improving clarity on taxation matters.
It was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Thursday and subsequently referred to the committee for further examination.
The panel comprises 31 MPs, including 14 from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), six from the Congress, two from the Samajwadi Party, and one each from the Trinamool Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Janata Dal (United), Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar faction), Shiv Sena, Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), and Zoram People's Movement.
With 17 members from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the ruling coalition holds a majority within the committee.
The panel is expected to submit its report by the first day of the Monsoon Session. The ongoing Budget Session is set to conclude on 4 April, while the Monsoon Session is likely to commence in the third week of July.
The proposed bill seeks to modernise the tax framework by introducing simplified terminology, replacing terms such as "assessment year" and "previous year" with "tax year."
It also aims to eliminate complex provisions and explanations that have made the current tax law cumbersome.
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