'Naya Saral Form must be withdrawn'

Dubbing the new income tax return Form 2F as "kathin" (difficult), a parliamentary committee has asked the government to withdraw the Form, including the controversial cash flow statement that salaried assessees have to file.

"The new Form 2F seems to be quite cumbersome and lengthy, fit enough to be called 'kathin' instead of an improved version of 'Naya Saral' Form," the standing committee on finance chaired by B C Khanduri, said in its report.

"Overall, the committee remains unconvinced about the reason and justification for introducing the new Form 2F, particularly the need for a cash flow statement," it said.

The committee recommended that the finance ministry should update the earlier Form 2E instead of introducing a new Form and also do away with cash flow statement in the Return Forms 2, 2F and 3.

As only two per cent of the returns are subject to scrutiny and 98 per cent returns are accepted, the committee said it was unnecessary to include cash flow statement.

Once the income was taxed, the utilisation of taxed income should not be the concern of the department. As computerisation of Income Tax department was not yet complete, the Committee was doubtful about as to whether the department itself was fully equipped to scrutinise the returns filed online by tax payers.

The Committee also suggested that the number of Forms should be rationalised to arrive at a minimum and specific Forms applicable to different categories of assessees.

The government has made Form 2F optional for filing of returns for 2006-07 by the salaried class.