In the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), sources sought to clarify concerns raised about the Income Tax authorities being granted additional powers in the Income Tax Bill 2025, allowing them overriding access to electronic records, including emails, social media, and virtual digital spaces.
Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) cited that Section 132 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 enables the authorised officer to mandate any person who is found in possession of books, accounts or other documents in the form of electronic records to provide the facility to scrutinize these documents and to seize these document (document contains electronic record as per Section 2(22AA) of Income Tax Act, 1961.).
One source said, “Claims that new powers are being introduced are incorrect.” Likewise, Section 247 of the Income Tax Bill, 2025, specifies that an authorised officer could gain access by overriding the access code of a computer system or virtual digital space.
Another source said, “It is only restating of the already existing powers to the authorised officer.” It ruled that the same authority is provided to the tax authorities in irregular cases where a competent authority orders an investigation and the person related is not cooperating with the proceedings.
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“This is not the standard practice,” as per the source. It is applicable merely in exceptional cases. The same was the matter under the Income Tax Act of 1961, which stayed unchanged in the New Income Tax Bill of 2025.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla formed a 31-member Select Committee of Lok Sabha MPs to examine the new Income Tax Bill, which strives to facilitate tax laws, modernise definitions, and provide more clarity on various tax-related cases.
This new bill, tabled in Lok Sabha by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 13, aims to substitute the existing Income Tax Act, 1961 and introduce changes that affect different categories of taxpayers, including individuals, businesses, and non-profit organisations.
The government, in the July 2024 Budget, had proposed a comprehensive review of the Income-tax Act of 1961. The objective was to make the Act concise and lucid and lessen disputes and litigation.
