The 11th Report (of the Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice) onThe National Tax Tribunal Bill, 2004 has just been published on the Net.
2. The Committee has taken note of the strong opposition to the Bill of several witnesses who deposed before the Committee as well as of the members of the Committee. The Committee has not bought the explanation of the Secretary, Department of Legal Affairs, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India and has proceeded to ".......... place on record reservations regarding the setting up of National Tax Tribunal ..........". Having done so, the Committee states that, ".......... in the event of the Government being very keen to go ahead with this Bill, it should take into consideration the observations/recommendations of the Committe on the clauses of the Bill ..........".
3. Among the significant recommendations of the Committee on the Bill are the following :
(i) Clause 6(2) should be modified so that Chief Commissioners of Income-tax are also entitled to become Members of the National Tax Tribunal. [ This recommendation is founded on the Committee's feeling that these Chief Commissioners ".......... should be given encouragement towards the fag end of their career by giving them an opportunity to become Members ..........". This feeling is, in turn, based on the Committee's having noted that these Chief Commissioners ".......... pass appellate orders while adjudicating upon the assessment orders .........." and ".......... take a lot of risk while conducting search and seize operations against the tax evaders." ]
(ii) Clause 13(1) should be modified so as to ensure that ".......... only qualified persons such as Advocates, Company Secretaries, Chartered Accountants, Cost and Works Accountants may be authorised to appear before the National Tax Tribunal.".
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