India’s Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) should immediately take steps to jointly handle tax service for large taxpayers and should aim to unify their management structures within five years, concluded a report issued by the Tax Administration Reform Commission (TARC),
The comprehensive report to newly appointed finance minister, Shri Arun Jaitley, dated May 30 but released publicly on June 16, said that India should abolish of the position of Revenue Secretary and that the present functions of the Department of Revenue should be allocated to the CBDT and CBEC. It also said that improving taxpayer service should be a top government priority, that stakeholder input should be consulted for tax law changes, and that retrospective tax amendments should be avoided as a principle. The report can be found on the Indian Ministry of Finance website.
