Vijay Kelkar Committee

The government setup The Task Force on Direct and Indirect Taxes under the chairmanship of Vijay Kelkar in 2002. The Committee came out with its recommendations in the same year.

Important Recommendations

(i) Administration of Direct Tax

• Universalization of PAN card.
• Block assessment of search and seizure cases should be abolished.
• Outsourcing of staff to clear backlog/pending cases.
• Abolishing the requirement of tax clearance certificate, needed while leaving country.
• Empowering CBDT via devolving more administrative and financial powers.

(ii) Personal Income Tax

• Rationalizing income tax slabs and eliminating surcharge on personal income tax.
• Specific recommendations which were contextual like incentivizing home loans via interest subsidy, reducing exemption limits to Rs. 1 lakh etc.

(iii) Corporate Tax

• Reducing corporate tax to 30% for domestic companies and 35% for foreign companies.
• Listed companies should be exempted from tax on dividends and capital gains.
• Abolishing Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT).
• Abolishing Wealth Tax.

Recommendations like simplification of tax policy, improvement in tax administration were accepted and the rest were taken into further consideration and study.