New Bill on IT Act to be introduced in Parliament: Chidambaram

Nagpur, Apr 12 (UNI) Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said a new Bill to amend the Income Tax Act would be tabled in Parliament by the end of this year.

The four working groups, already constituted to recommend various amendments in the Income Tax Act would submit their reports to the Government within a month, Mr Chidambaram said.

He announced this while addressing the valedictory function of the 58th batch of Indian Revenue Service (IRS) trainee officers at the Nationtal Academy of Direct Taxes (NADT) here.

He said the Income Tax Act needs to be re-written, at least for the 'alphabet soup' that it has become, if nothing else. The amendments would be a part of the effort to bring reforms in the tax administration and collection system to make it more transparent, he said.

He said he was pleased to note that the 108 trainee officers in the 58th batch at NADT comprised youngsters from varied academic backgrounds, including medicine, engineering and veterinary science.

The Finance Minister advised the would-be officers to accept as ''challenges'' the problems that they were likely to face in their careers.

''There is a very clear line between public life and private life, and you have chosen to cross that line. Public service is the most ideal. You will have to strive your best to uphold the highest ethics of public office while in service,'' he said pointing out that the problems of civilian service were nothing when compared to the hardships faced by personnel in the armed forces.

''Officers must bear in mind that the direct tax administration has ceased to be an enforcement machinery and has become more service-oriented,'' he said.

Earlier, in her welcome address, NADT Director General Gita Kripalani underlined the need for efforts to work out more promotional avenues for officers in the IRS. The task of IRS officers has become more complicated over the years, she said.

The passing out of the 58th batch at NADT today was significant as it marked, almost to the day, the institution's silver jubilee.

It was on April 11, 1981, that the first training session for officers was held in the present premises. Earlier, the institution was known as the Indian Revenue Service (Direct Taxes) Staff College, and operated from a few rooms in the building of a nationalised bank.

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