Chidambaram unhappy with Pranab

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram expressed disappointment over the changes in the Direct Taxes Code (DTC) proposals brought in by his predecessor Pranab Mukherjee in the Finance Ministry and subsequently by the Standing Committee on Finance.

Addressing the 32{+n}{+d} Skoch Summit in the city on Thursday evening, the Finance Minister said, “Working right through in 2008, every single section of the DTC was drafted by me, Parthasarathi Shome and few other officers in the Income Tax Department.”

DTC law aims to consolidate and amend the law relating to direct taxes.

In 2010, changes were made to the DTC 2008 proposals by Pranab Mukherjee, the then Finance Minister. Mukherjee took over from Chidambaram after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks following which the latter was given charge of the Home Ministry.

“DTC 2010, which was introduced as a Bill, I am afraid and I regret to say, left out much of the essence of DTC 2008. The 2010 Bill goes back to much of the provisions of the Income Tax Act of 1961,” Chidambaram said. The Bill was subsequently referred to the Standing Committee on Finance, headed by senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha.

“The Standing Committee, unfortunately, took it further back to the Income Act of 1961.

“I have to introduce the DTC Bill in the monsoon session, which does not reject the recommendations of the standing committee, yet it must, as far as possible, conform to the original philosophy of the DTC of 2008,” the Finance Minister said. (The Hindu)