Parliament passes Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill 2024, New Income Tax Bill discussion in monsoon session

Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman speaks in the Lok Sabha during the Budget session of Parliament, in New Delhi, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Sansad TV via PTI Photo)

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• The new Income Tax Bill will be taken up for discussion in the monsoon session of Parliament, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday.
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• Replying to the discussions on the Finance Bill 2025 in the Lok Sabha, Sitharaman said the new income tax bill, which was introduced in the House on February 13, is currently being vetted by the Select Committee.
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• The Select Committee has been mandated to submit its report by the first day of the next session of Parliament.
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• "...we will take it (new income tax bill) up in the monsoon session," Sitharaman said.
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• The monsoon session of Parliament is usually convene in July and runs through August.
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• Sitharaman also said the digital record will also be taken into account for the assessment once the new Income Tax Bill is passed.
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• The 1961 Income Tax Act permits the examination of books of account, physically kept or every manual record, which shows income expenditure.
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• Since the 1961 Act does not mention the digital most often it becomes contentious and people go to the court and seek protection from not sharing passcode, she said.
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• "So, digital becomes an issue. What prevails now with the gap and that gap is getting filled up in the new Income Tax Bill, which is before the select committee," she said.
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• The new bill gives tax officers powers to override the access code of computer systems and virtual digital space, including online trading and investment accounts as well as cloud servers, in search and seizure cases.
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• As per the Bill, virtual digital space encompasses any digital realm that allows users to interact, communicate and perform activities using computer systems, computer networks, and communication devices, and includes email servers, social media accounts, online investment accounts, trading accounts, banking account, etc; any website used for storing details of ownership of any asset; remote server or cloud servers; and digital application platforms.
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• The simplified Income Tax Bill, which is half the size of the 1961 Income Tax Act, seeks to achieve tax certainty by minimising the scope of litigation and fresh interpretation, the Income Tax department had earlier said.
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• The new bill has a word count of 2.6 lakh, lower than 5.12 lakh in the I-T Act. The number of sections is 536 against 819 effective sections in the existing law.
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• The number of chapters has also been halved to 23 from 47.
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• The Income Tax Bill 2025 has 57 tables compared to 18 in the existing Act and removed 1,200 provisos and 900 explanations.
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