NEW DELHI, July 14 (UPIAsia) -- The Indian government has set up a committee to "vet and rework" a recently proposed set of rules aimed at curbingtax avoidance in the country.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh constituted an expert committee on Friday to "undertakestakeholder consultations to finalize the guidelines" for the General Anti-Avoidance Rules by September 30.
The committee is headed bytaxation expert Parthasarathi Shome and comprises former insurance regulator N. Rangachary, National Institute Of Public Finance Policyprofessor Ajay Shah and Revenue Department Joint Secretary Sunil Gupta.
"There is a need to have greater clarity on many other fronts. With this in view, the prime minister has constituted this expert committee which will bring transparency and a high degree of technical expertise to the consultation process," the prime minister's office said in a statement.
The General Anti-Avoidance Rules were introduced in March by the Indian government in the budget for 2012-13 to curb corporate tax avoidance. These rules were scheduled to come into effect on April 1. The adoption of the rules was postponed by one year to April 1, 2013, as the new tax regulation came under severe criticism from foreign and domestic investors for being too broad and vague.
