Nirmala Sitharaman tables revised Income Tax Bill 2025 in Lok Sabha

Income Tax Bill 2025: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday introduced the revised version of the New Income Tax Bill, 2025, that seeks to replace the existing Income Tax Act, 1961. The Bill was presented after after including “almost all of the recommendations of the Select Committee.”

The Finance Minister tabled the modified new Bill following suggestions made by the Select Committee led by BJP MP Baijayant Panda to the original version of the Income Tax Bill, 2025.

“Almost all of the recommendations of the Select Committee have been accepted by the government. In addition, suggestions have been received from stakeholders about changes that would convey the proposed legal meaning more accurately,” said the statement of objects and reasons of the bill.

Presenting the Bill, Nirmala Sitharaman said The Income-Tax (No.2) Bill, 2025 seeks to consolidate and amend the law associated with income tax and will replace the current Act.

On Friday, Sitharaman had withdrew the original version of the New Income Tax Bill, 2025, during the Monsoon Session of the Lok Sabha.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Saturday had confirmed Nirmala Sitharaman would present the modified version of the Bill in the Parliament on August 11.

“It is being presumed that there will be an absolutely new bill, ignoring the earlier bill for which a lot of work was done, and all the work done and time spent will go down,” Rijiju had said.

Upon withdrawing the old version of the New Income Tax Bill, the Centre had said that it would release an updated version that incorporated suggestions made by the 31-member Select Committee of the Parliament.

What are the changes in the New Income Tax Bill, 2025?

Nirmala Sitharaman had withdrawn the earlier version of the Bill on Friday to avoid confusion by multiple versions of the Bill and to provide a clear and updated version with all the changes.

“There are corrections in the nature of drafting, alignment of phrases, consequential changes and cross-referencing. Therefore, a decision has been taken by the government to withdraw the Income-tax Bill, 2025 as reported by the Select Committee. Consequently, Income-tax (No. 2) Bill, 2025 has been prepared to replace the Income-tax Act, 1961,” the statement of objects and reasons reads.

The Select Committee in its report identified several drafting corrections based on stakeholder suggestions, which they believe are essential for clarity and unambiguous interpretation of the new bill.

In total, the parliamentary panel had made a total of 566 suggestions/recommendations in its 4,584-page report.

One of the changes suggested by the Select Committee related to income tax refund, which seeks to remove the provision that denies refund if ITR is filed past the due date. The earlier version of the Bill required a person seeking refunds to file ITR within the due date.