New direct tax code likely by April, says Pranab
07 Dec 2011
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee today said he was hopeful that the new direct taxes code would come into force from 1 April 2012.
"The proposed code brings together the government's policy initiatives on direct taxes. It is slated to come into force from the next financial year," he told an an international conference on 'tax and equality' in New Delhi.
Seeking to modernise the tax system, the government has proposed to replace the Income Tax Act, 1961, with a new legislation.
The direct tax code is a much less controversial reform than the proposed general sales tax or GST, which seeks to replace a plethora of indirect taxes imposed at multiple levels by the centre as well as the states.
The GST regime is clearly unlikely to be implemented in a hurry, as states stand on their rights to levy their own taxes as well as get a bigger share of the central cake.
Mukherjee was largely non-committal on GST. "We are moving toward an economy-wide, generalised value-added tax system of goods and services taxes at all levels in the country," was all he said.
