CBDT, CBIC Boards to be Merged? Finance Ministry Calls News Report 'Factually Incorrect'

New Delhi, July 6: The Finance Ministry on Monday rubbished media reports that the Centre is considering proposal to merge Central Board of Direct Taxes & Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs. The ministry said that the news item was “factually incorrect”.  It added that the government had no proposal to merge the two boards created under the Central Boards of Revenue Act, 1963. Income Tax Return 2019-20 Filing Deadline Extended Till November 30, 2020.

The ministry in a statement said, “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.”

Finance Ministry's Statement:

According to the Finance Ministry, the said merger was one of the recommendations of the Tax Administrative Reforms Commission (TARC). The TARC report was studied by the Centre in detail, but its recommendation was not accepted. The Finance Ministry the action taken 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 government said that news item is completely rejected as baseless and unverified.

Earlier in the day, the Income Tax Department extended the deadline for linking Permanent Account Number (PAN) with Aadhaar till March 31, 2021. The decision has been taken by the IT department because of the coronavirus pandemic in the country. The PAN account may be declared as "inoperative" if the PAN-Aadhaar linkage is not done within the deadline.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 06, 2020 05:32 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).