No plans to merge CBDT & CBIC; Government rejects media report over proposal & terms it as baseless

Government has dismissed the media report that it is considering a proposal to merge the Central Board of Direct Taxes and Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs. The Finance Ministry has termed the news report of the merger of two boards of revenue as factually incorrect clarifying that the government has no proposal to merge the two boards created under the Central Boards of Revenue Act, 1963.

The Ministry in its statement said the report has been published without due verification of facts from the competent authorities and it only creates a policy distraction when the Ministry is amidst the implementation of a large number of taxpayers' friendly reforms like the transition from a manual assessment based on territorial jurisdiction to a completely randomized electronic faceless assessment, electronic verification or transactions and faceless appeals.

As pointed out in the report, the merger was one of the recommendations of the Tax Administrative Reforms Commission (TARC). The Ministry said, the report of TARC was examined in detail by the government and this recommendation of TARC was not accepted.

It added, "As a part on an assurance made by the Government in the Parliament in response to a Parliament question, the Government has also placed this fact in 2018 before the Committee on Government Assurances. The action taken report on the recommendations of the TARC is placed even on the website of the Department of Revenue, which clearly shows that this recommendation was not accepted."

The Finance Ministry said, this misleading article has been published with no due diligence of even checking official records placed in the public domain or checking the latest status with relevant competent authorities in the Ministry.