Odisha MP Baijayant Panda Heads Lok Sabha Select Committee To Examine Income Tax Bill

Bhubaneswar: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has constituted a 31-member Select Committee of the lower house to examine the Income Tax Bill.

To be headed by BJP MP from Odisha’s Kendrapada, Baijayant Panda, the panel is mandated to submit its report by the first day of the next session.

The panel has 31 MPs, with 17 belonging to the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Of these, 14 are members of the BJP, with a single representative from the TDP, JD(U), and the Shiv Sena.

The opposition has 13 members, including six from the Congress, two from the Samajwadi Party, and one each from the DMK, TMC, Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (SP), and the RSP. Furthermore, Richard Vanlalhmangaiha is Mizoram’s incumbent Zoram People’s Movement.

The ongoing Budget Session will conclude on April 4 and the Monsoon session could commence in the third or fourth week of July.

While introducing the Bill in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had urged Birla to refer the draft law to a Select Committee of the House.

The much-anticipated Bill will replace terminologies such as “assessment year” and “previous year” with the easier-to-understand “tax year” as part of a move to simplify language while removing provisos and explanations.