The government has expanded the CBDT Chairman led committee on black money by adding one more member to it -- Member Investigation of the Income Tax department.

Senior IRS officer S.S. Rana has recently taken over as the Member (Investigation) in the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and with his inclusion, the strength of the high-level committee has gone up to 10.

According to sources, the need to expand the strength of the committee was felt as CBDT Chairman M.C. Joshi had recently divested the Member (Investigation) charge to Mr. Rana.

Mr. Rana is now handling all the probe cases related to tax evasion and search-and-seizure operations by the IT Department which will form part of the panel’s deliberations.

The Committee has been constituted to examine ways to strengthen laws to curb the generation of black money in the country, its illegal transfer abroad and its recovery. It is expected to submit its report by next month.

During its last meeting, the Law Ministry had told a government panel on black money that imposing death penalty on economic offenders would be barbaric and take the nation backward.

The other members of the committee, besides Mr. Rana and CBDT Chairman, are: CBDT Member (Legislation and Computerisation), Director of the Enforcement Directorate, Director General of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Director General (Currency), CBDT Joint Secretary (Foreign Trade and Tax Regulation), Director of the Financial Intelligence Unit, CBDT’s Commissioner of Income Tax (Investigation), Joint Secretary (Ministry of Law). (PTI)