The much-awaited draft of the Income Tax code, which is expected to simplify and replace the existing law, is ready and will be released along with a discussion paper, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Tuesday, but did not put any time-frame for its release.

“The Income Tax code was ready as of yesterday. But I am not in a position to release the code because I have decided that I will release it along with a discussion paper,” Chidambaram told a press conference here. The discussion paper will explain the reasons for writing the code, the changes between the old and the new law, and the rationale behind these changes, he said.

“The draft of the discussion paper shown to me is 70-pages long. I am trying to compress it to about 50-60 pages,” he said. Once the discussion paper is ready, the code would be floated along with it for wider consultations, he added.

Responding to a query, the minister explained that the code is only a draft, which will be discussed for one year in the country and will probably be introduced two years later.