Recently the finance ministry stated that all the information and talks over the merging of Central Board of Indirect Taxes These types of taxes paid on Consumption by the consumer but they do not pay directly to the government (unlike income tax). For example, GST, Sales Tax, VAT, Custom Duty and Octroi Tax and Customs( CBIC ) and the Central Board of Direct Taxes ( CBDT ) are not at all true.
The clarification came ahead of the news article published on a leading newspaper mentioning the merging of these two organizations as per the Central Boards of Revenue Act, 1963. Authorities stated that the news is factually false because the Government has no plan to merge the two boards.
The news probably has been published without checking and verifying the facts from the concerned authorities of Ministry of Finance. The news only created a policy distraction when the ministry is trying to implement changes and amendments and reforms, that will be beneficial for the taxpayers and it will be user friendly too. “These reforms are transition from a manual assessment based on territorial jurisdiction to a completely randomized electronic faceless assessment, electronic verification or transactions, and faceless appeals”.
The News claimed that the idea for the merger of the two boards was recommended by the Tax Administrative Reforms Commission (TARC). It also stated that the Government had gone through the report of TARC and also declined it. The same was once stated in response to a Parliament question in 2018 and the same decision is also stated on the website of the department of Revenue too. This clearly indicates that the news is not correct the recommended was not accepted.
All these are enough to prove that the article is just misleading, baseless, and unverified and harming the standard of journalism. It also reflects a complete disregard for due diligence if such incorrect news got a lead story position then it could also raise a concern between the all news-reading public.