The government is not considering any proposal to merge the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), the Union Ministry of Finance clarified today. The clarification came after a news report claimed that the two boards were going to be merged. The ministry, in a press note, said that the information was published without due verification of facts from the competent authorities of Ministry of Finance.
"A news item has been published today in a leading newspaper that the government is considering proposal to merge the Central Board of Direct Taxes and Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs. This news item is factually incorrect as the government has no proposal to merge the two Boards under the Central Boards of Revenue Act 1963," the press note issued by the ministry read.
"It has been published without due verification of facts from the competent authorities of Ministry of Finance and only creates a policy distraction when the Ministry is amidst implementation of a large number of taxpayers’ friendly reforms like transition from manual assessment based on territorial jurisdiction to a completely randomized electronic faceless assessment, electronic verification or transactions and faceless appeals," it added.
The said merger was one of the recommendations of the Tax Administration Reforms Commission (TARC), headed by Parthasarathi Shome, which submitted its report in 2016.
"As pointed out in the report, the said merger was one of the recommendations of the Tax Administrative Reforms Commission (TARC). The report of TARC was examined in detail by the Government and this recommendation of TARC was not accepted by the Government. As a part on an assurance made by the Government in the Parliament in response to a Parliament question, the Government has also placed this fact in 2018 before the Committee on Government Assurances. The action taken report on the recommendations of the TARC is placed even on the website of Department of Revenue, which clearly shows that this recommendation was not accepted," the ministry said.
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