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`Panel soon to revamp I-T Act'

Our Bureau

AHMEDABAD, June 4

THE Minister of State for Finance, Mr. V. Dhananjay Kumar, has said that his Ministry was in the process of setting up a committee for the restructuring of the Income-Tax Act.

Talking to newspersons here on Sunday, the Minister expressed the hope that a new I-T Act would be in place in time for the next year's Budget presentation.

``A committee is being formed soon to look into the various provisions of the I-T Act which could be further simplified. It is no secret that many aspects of the Act continue to be complicated and has scope for restructuring. However, the committee will be only of the department level and not of Cabinet grade. Meanwhile, there is also going to be an initiative from the Finance Ministry for making the permanent account number (PAN) card the overriding document as the Home Ministry is also toying with the idea of coming out with a central identity card. We are yet to put forth the idea before the Home Ministry,'' Mr. Kumar said.

The Minister said there was nothing untoward in the various central agencies tapping information pertaining to wealth as was available under the VDIS. It was another matter altogether that the enquiry agencies chose to make this information available to the public. There was no breach of trust from the side of the Finance Ministry as it had not willfully leaked out any information collected under VDIS to the public, he pointed out.