Bhubaneswar: The new Income Tax Bill 2025 introduced in the LoK Sabha On Feb 13, 2025 has included provisions to crack down on the black money generators.
The Bill has included certain provisions to empower the IT sleuths to deal with the errant individuals who refuse to cooperate with the IT investigation.
In a major revelation in Rajya Sabha, replying to a question by Trinamool Congress MP Ritabrata Banerjee, whether Income Tax officials will be allowed access to the personal e-mails, social media and bank accounts of all assesses, the Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary denied it categorically.
However, the MoS Finance said, under the new IT Bill 2025, the IT sleuths have been empowered to access personal e-mails, social media and bank accounts of assesses under seizure and search cases, where the individual is not cooperating.
WHAT MoS FINANCE SAID?
MoS pankaj Chaudhary said the section 132 of the existing Income tax Act, 1961 enables the authorized officer to require any person who is found to be in possession or control of any books of account or other documents maintained in the form of electronic record as defined in clause (t) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 to afford the necessary facility to inspect such books of account or other documents during the search and seizure action.
The minister added that a similar provision has been provided in the Income-tax Bill, 2025 under clause (ii) of sub-section (1) of section 247.
The minister then added the BIG.
He said, further, in certain cases of search and seizure authorized by the competent authority, where access code is not available and the person concerned is not cooperating with the proceedings, authorized officer may gain access by overriding the access code to such computer system.
ACCESS CODE: Alpha numeric passwords, set up by users for their digital communication on social media platforms, email services etc. The Bill authorizes the IT sleuths to even override the encrypted platform access code – which means the IT sleuths may gain access to the communication made on Whats App.
As per the new IT Bill 2025 provisions, The new Bill has added virtual digital space in the search list of IT sleuths that included entering and searching buildings and breaking open locks, during search and seizure proceedings.
The Bill has added virtual digital space defining it as an environment, area, or realm that is constructed and experienced through computer technology. It includes
- Email servers
- Social media accounts
- Online investment and trading accounts
- Websites for storing details of asset ownership
OTHER DETAILS OF NEW IT BILL 2025
The new Bill has also expanded the definition of undisclosed income in search cases by including virtual digital assets, in addition to money, bullion, jewellery, or other valuable articles.
The digital assets include any code, number, or token generated cryptographically and provide a digital representation of value exchanged.
The new IT Bill has included a provision whereby when a dispute resolution panel directs completion of assessment in cases coming under Transfer Pricing, will henceforth have to issue their direction along with the points of determination and the reasons for arriving at the decision.
TRANSFER PRICING: Transfer Price is the actual price charged in a transaction between related entities which are part of the same Multi National Enterprises (MNE) group. The tax rates vary from country to country. So, there is incentive for MNE group to set transfer prices for transactions between its group members such that tax liability for the group as a whole is minimized.
The new IT Bill has added a provision that says if a term in a treaty (bilalteral agreement between countries to avoid double taxation) is not defined in the treaty, the Act, or a notification by the central government, its meaning will be as assigned in any other central law.
Above all, in order to weed out the human fallibilities, the new bill seeks to empower the central government to frame new schemes for greater efficiency, transparency, and accountability.
