Finance minister Arun Jaitley will meet industry chambers today

NEW DELHI: Finance minister Arun Jaitley will meet industry chambers on Friday afternoon to get feedback from business on the new tax return forms that came in for criticism over disclosures related to foreign travel and domestic bank accounts.

The meeting comes after Jaitley met the revenue department brass on Monday, within hours of his return from the US, where he had gone to attend the meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The new tax return forms were introduced while the minister was in the US.

On Friday, Jaitley and his officials will spend 30 minutes with representatives from CII, Ficci and Assocham to get their views, sources said, adding that the minister wants to hear stakeholders before finalizing changes in the new forms to make it simpler.

Although the government had earlier said that details of foreign assets, bank accounts and interests in trusts need to be disclosed, the requirement to provide information related to personal spending on overseas visits and details of all bank accounts came as a surprise and has faced flak. The move to include the new information was part of the recommendations of the special investigation team probing the black money issue and authorities had decided to modify the I-T return forms as part of measures to fight the menace.

With the deadline for filing returns still three months away, the government can make changes to the forms to make it more palatable.

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Source:Timesofindia

Finance Minister Of India