Budget Session: Nirmala Sitharaman introduces Income Tax Bill in Lok Sabha
The new Income Tax Bill aims to bring in ease of compliance as it will help reduce compliance processes by streamlining paperwork, integrating digital platforms, and simplifying return filing mechanisms
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday (February 13) introduced the Income Tax Bill, 2025, in the Lok Sabha and urged Speaker Om Birla to refer it to a select committee of the House.
Opposition members opposed the Bill at the introduction stage but the House passed a motion by voice vote for its introduction.
While moving the Bill for introduction, Sitharaman pleaded Birla to refer the draft law to a select committee of the House, which will submit its report by the first day of the next session. She urged the speaker to take a call on the proposed panel's composition and rules.
The Income Tax Bill, 2025, aims to simplify tax laws, modernise definitions, and provide more clarity on various tax-related matters. It seeks to replace the existing Income Tax Act, 1961 and introduce changes that affect different categories of taxpayers, including individuals, businesses, and non-profit organisations.
One of the significant changes in the new bill is the introduction of simplified language and modern terminology. It replaces outdated terms and brings in new ones to align with today's economy.
Waqf Bill JPC report tabled amid uproar
Meanwhile, the report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, was tabled in the Rajya Sabha amid massive protests by the Opposition, forcing Chairperson Jagdeep Dhankhar to briefly adjourn proceedings.
As soon as the report on the Bill, which aims to streamline registration of Waqf properties, was tabled by Rajya Sabha MP Medha Kulkarni, Opposition MPs claimed that portions of dissent notes were removed and resorted to sloganeering.
The Centre, however, highlighted that the JPC chairman has the discretion to take down the portions that malign the committee.
The government sources said that only those parts of the dissent notes of the Opposition have been deleted that made “unparliamentary remarks" against JPC chairman and BJP MP Jagdambika Pal. “The dissent notes are part of the report,” sources said.
Lok Sabha adjourned till 2 pm
Earlier, Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned till 2 pm amid protests by Opposition members over allocation of a project to a businessman in Gujarat.
As soon as the House met for the day, Opposition members, including those from the Congress, sought to raise the issue of the project allocation. A visibly-peeved Speaker Om Birla told the protesting members not to disrupt the proceedings and urged them to follow the tradition of the House.
He also asked the members whether they did not want the House to function, and as the protests continued, the proceedings were adjourned in less than five minutes till 2 pm.
The Congress on Wednesday (February 12) alleged that the Centre endangered national security to benefit private billionaires, over reports that border security rules were relaxed for a business group to set up an energy park.
Reacting to media reports that the government relaxed national security protocols along the Pakistan border to make way for a renewable energy park of the Adani Group in Gujarat, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had said that the pseudo-nationalism face of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has once again been unmasked.
The Adani Group did not respond to the allegations.
Also read: Number of Indian prisoners in foreign jails is 10,152: Govt informs Parliament
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- 13 Feb 2025 10:13 AM GMT
Gurdwaras, churches to be targeted next: Opposition MPs on JPC on Waqf bill
Opposition MPs on Thursday claimed the report of the joint committee of Parliament on the Waqf bill sought to open the floodgates for targeting land belonging to other religious groups.
They also questioned redacting certain portions of the dissent notes submitted by opposition members of the panel.
Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said certain portions that cast aspersions on the committee had been removed and added that it was done according to rules.
The report of the joint committee of Parliament on the (Amendment) Bill was tabled in the Rajya Sabha amid uproar on Thursday, with the proceedings briefly adjourned following a heated debate between the treasury and the opposition benches.
When the House reconvened, opposition MPs said their dissent notes were redacted from the report while the government denied the charge. The opposition members then staged a walkout.
- 13 Feb 2025 10:11 AM GMT
TMC delegation meets President Murmu over pending Aparajita Bill
A delegation of Trinamool Congress MPs met President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday, urging her to expedite the Aparajita Women and Child (West Bengal Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, 2024, which had been sent to her by West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose on September 6.
The delegation, which included Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha Parliamentary Party leaders Derek O'Brien and Sudip Bandyopadhyay respectively, as well as MPs Dola Sen, Pratima Mondal, and other women MPs from the party, said they wanted to draw the President’s attention to the pending Bill.
On September 3, the West Bengal Assembly unanimously passed the bill, which seeks capital punishment for rape convicts if their actions result in the victim’s death or leave her in a vegetative state, and life imprisonment without parole for other perpetrators.
