Parliament panel on IT Bill to hear views of CII, FICCI, ICAI, Ernst & Young this week

New Delh: The Lok Sabha Select Committee examining the Income Tax Bill, 2025 will hear the views of industry and expert bodies, including the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), this week.

After the first meeting on February 24, the multi-party panel headed by senior BJP MP Baijayant Panda will be meeting on March 6 and 7 to hear expert views.

On March 6, the committee will first hear the views of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) followed by Ernst & Young. The panel will hear FICCI and CII on March 7.

In the first hearing, the Ministry of Finance had briefed the MPs on various aspects of the Bill. The Ministry officials said the Bill would simplify the existing Act and make it more user-friendly.

Lok Sabha sent the Bill to the Select Committee after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced it in Lok Sabha on February 13, the last day of the first half of Parliament's Budget Session.

The panel, which has 14 BJP MPs and six Congress lawmakers among others, has been given time till the first day of the next Session to submit the report.

The Bill is aimed at simplifying the existing Income Tax Act, 1961, which was subjected to numerous amendments and as a result, its basic structure has been “overburdened and language has become complex, increasing cost of compliance for taxpayers and hampering efficiency of direct-tax administration”, the Statement of Objects and Reasons said.

Besides Panda, the members in the panel include Nishikant Dubey, Jagadish Shettar, Bhartruhari Mahtab, Naveen Jindal (all BJP), Deepender Hooda, Benny Behanan (both Congress), Moitra (Trinamool Congress), NK Premachandran (RSP), Supriya Sule (NCP-Sharadchandra Pawar), Arvind Sawant (Shiv Sena-UBT) and Lalji Verma (Samajwadi Party).