How did the Income Tax Department full the “mammoth” task of rationalising and simplifying the enormous Income Tax Act 1961 in nearly six months, after which implementing the Select Committee’s voluminous ideas in only one month? By cramming in 75,000 man-hours of work in that point and even placing probationers on the job, that’s how.
The outcome was the massively condensed and considerably extra user-friendly Income Tax Act 2025.
“The announcement by the honourable Finance Minister was made on July 23, 2024 that within six months the entire process of simplification of the law, to make it more lucid, clear, and precise will be achieved,” R.N. Parbat, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) member in cost of laws, advised The Hindu. “The task was given to the Department of Revenue and the CBDT. It was to be done in-house.”
By August 14, the drafting committee below Chief Commissioner of Income Tax V.Okay. Gupta was fashioned, and that’s when the work started in earnest. Subcommittees had been fashioned to have a look at each facet of the regulation with a view to take away redundant sections and take away the relaxation.
As the scope of the work grew to become extra clear— the unique 1961 Act had 819 sections — the quantity of subcommittees additionally grew. By the finish of it, there have been 26 completely different subcommittees, in accordance with Mr. Parbat.
Apart from this, the course of additionally included a evaluation committee that was tasked with reviewing the work carried out by the drafting subcommittees.
“Once the review committee completed its work, it came to the Tax Policy and Legislation (TPL) division of the CBDT,” Mr. Parbat defined. “And after that, when a draft was formed, it was reviewed by another set of senior officers of the CBDT.”
Throughout this, the Revenue Secretary and the Finance Minister took common briefings with the drafting committee and the TPL, whereas the Ministry of Law was additionally consulted.
“The work was broadbased, with more than 150 officers of the Department working on it,” Mr. Parbat mentioned. “That included our Chairman, who was from the 1988 batch. At the same time, the junior-most person on the team was from the 2018 batch. Officers from all over India were selected for this purpose. We also involved our probationers who were undergoing training in Nagpur involved in the process.”
The draft of the Bill was laid earlier than Parliament on February 13, 2025, six months after the drafting committee was fashioned. The quantity of chapters has been slashed from 47 to 23 and the quantity of sections from 819 to 536.
The new Bill included 57 tables as explanations, up from 18 and 46 formulae in comparison with the earlier six. The language was tremendously simplified, jargon and archaic phrases corresponding to ‘notwithstanding’ had been eliminated so far as attainable, and examples had been supplied the place wanted.
To put this in context, the Parliamentary Select Committee that was tasked with reviewing these adjustments took 5 months to submit its report.
“They forwarded around 1,312 suggestions to us, so again our TPL division officers along with the core committee members of the drafting committee formulated the written replies and submitted them to the Select Committee,” Mr. Parbat mentioned.
After receiving the written and oral replies from the income secretary, the chairman of the CBDT, Mr. Parbat and his crew, together with the core members of the drafting committee, the Standing Committee submitted its report back to Parliament on July 16, 2025.
The revised Bill was then handed in Parliament on August 12, 2025 — only one 12 months after the drafting committee was fashioned. With the U.Okay. and Australia having accomplished related workouts in greater than 4 years, did the CBDT want extra time?
“The process was started and completed within the time given to us, so there is no question any longer of whether we would have preferred more time to do it,” Mr. Parbat mentioned. (*6*)
