Parliament approves new Income Tax Bill

New Delhi, Aug 12 (IANS) The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday returned the modified Income Tax Bill, along with the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2025, to the Lok Sabha as part of the parliamentary procedure.

"The largely dense and complex structure of the Income Tax Act, 1961, resulted in various interpretations, and several avoidable disputes kept mounting, not so much because of the rate, but because of the language. We were subjected to too many litigations. The density and complexity of the Act, along with the verbose way it was written over the decades, with different styles dominating, made the Act very, very tedious for anyone to use," Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in the upper house during the discussion.

With the Rajya Sabha returning the Bill to the Lok Sabha with a voice vote, it has now been approved by Parliament and will be sent to the President for assent to become an Act, which will replace the over six-decade-old Income Tax Act, 1961.

The Income Tax (No 2) Bill, 2025, was passed in the Lok Sabha on Monday shortly after Finance Minister Sitharaman tabled the revised bill, incorporating most of the recommendations made by the Parliamentary Select Committee.

The revised Bill will improve fairness and clarity while aligning the law with existing provisions. The new draft aims to provide lawmakers with a single, updated version that reflects all suggested changes, she said.

Sitharaman said that suggestions were received from the select committee, which are required to be incorporated to convey the correct legislative meaning. "There are corrections in the nature of drafting, alignment of phrases, consequential changes and cross-referencing," she said, adding that the earlier Bill was pulled back to avoid confusion.

The updated Income Tax Bill 2025 incorporates 285 suggestions from the Parliamentary Select Committee. The new legislation aims to simplify tax processes and address previous shortcomings, potentially reshaping the income tax landscape in the country.

Last week, the Income Tax Bill, 2025, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha on February 13 to replace the existing Income Tax Act, 1961, was formally withdrawn by the government.

According to BJP MP Baijayant Panda, who chaired the Parliamentary Select Committee responsible for reviewing the legislation, the new law, once passed, will simplify India’s decades-old tax structure, cut down legal confusion, and help individual taxpayers and MSMEs avoid unnecessary litigation.

"This new Act will further turbocharge growth by making taxes easy to understand and easy to comply with, thus reducing disputes and litigation."

"The leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has seen the repeal and overhaul of well over 1500 laws, helping India become the fastest growing and now the 4th largest economy in the world," Panda remarked.

The extant Income Tax Act of 1961 has undergone more than 4,000 amendments and contains over 5 lakh words. It has become too complex. The new bill simplifies that by nearly 50 per cent -- making it far easier for ordinary taxpayers to read and understand, according to Panda. The parliamentary panel had flagged multiple drafting errors and suggested amendments to reduce ambiguity.

In the revised Bill, slabs and rates have been changed across the board to benefit all taxpayers. The new structure substantially reduces the taxes of the middle class and leaves more money in their hands, boosting household consumption, savings and investment, according to the government.

--IANS

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