CJI, AG moot revamp of I-T laws

CJI, AG moot revamp of I-T laws
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NEW DELHI, JAN 25: Chief Justice of India A S Anand and Attorney-General Soli Sorabjee on Thursday favoured revamping of the income-tax laws, saying these were full of "ambiguities" beyond common man's comprehension.

Inaugurating the diamond jubilee celebrations of the Income-Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) here, Justice Anand said, "Income-Tax laws need much more simplification as a common man can never understand the narrow technicalities of sections, clauses, sub clauses, proviso to clauses, sub-clauses and explanations".

"We need to do away with the provisos and explanations and plug loopholes in the enactment" to make it simple for the tax payers "so that they change their attitude for better compliance of law", he said adding "ambiguity of legislation is always counter productive".

Presiding over the function, Sorabjee said "In view of ambiguities in Income Tax law, ordinary citizen are completely at loss. The law needs prolific amendments to bring simplicity and coherence". Justice Anand also said that attempt should be made to reduce the heavy backlog of cases as the citizen must get "unpolluted, quick and inexpensive justice". Tribunal president V Dongzathang said the institution was making all out efforts to reduce the backlog of cases and said these could be reduced by about 25 per cent if a stage of appeal in the high courts against the tribunal was abolished.