Revised DTC in monsoon session: FM

The Centre will table the revised draft of Direct Taxes Code in the monsoon session of Parliament, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has said.

The redrafted code that has taken into account concerns of various stakeholders would be soon put in public domain for discussions and debates, said an official statement. Nine major concerns that issued from the first draft of the Code, include taxation of savings, taxation of minimum alternate tax, capital gains tax and foreign taxation among others.

The minister also assured that all the concerns voiced by stakeholders have been considered while redrafting the Code. He was addressing the Central Direct Tax Advisory Committee.

The finance minister said that with regard to exchange of information, the government is taking several steps so that tax related information could be exchanged with other countries and for bilateral tax co-operation. The government has written to 65 countries to make exchange of information more effective and to remove the secrecy clause.

In fact, twenty low or no tax countries have been identified for negotiating and signing tax information exchange agreement.

Returns e-filing resumes

Bringing a relief to taxpayers, the facility for filing returns electronically has been resumed by the income tax department, following the renewal of their portal’s security certificate. The facility for filing tax returns for current assessment year 2010-11 had been suspended after the security certificate for the income tax department’s e-filing portal lapsed on May 8 this year.

??The e-filing facility for the assessment year 2010-11 has been restored. The taxpayers can now e-file their income tax returns without any difficulty?? the CBDT has said.

The earliest, income tax return for Assessment Year 2010-11 falls due, is on July 31. Assessment year 2010-11 tax returns are filed for financial year 2009-10. The CBDT had also assured recently that the e-filing portal of the income tax department is fully secure and the lapse of security certificate does not mean that its security features are slackened or compromised.