The government has decided to modify the new Income Tax Return (ITR) forms following concerns raised over them last month, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told parliament on Tuesday."The government has received representation on the new return forms notified on April 15, 2015 and taking into account concerns raised, the government has decided to modify the return forms," Jaitley told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.The Central Board of Direct Taxes had notified new norms and the attendant forms that, among other issues, requires an assessee to furnish all bank details, accounts opened or closed in the year with the closing balance, as also the sources of funds for expenses in an overseas travel.
While in the US last month, Jaitley spoke to his officials and asked them to review the forms, and on his return, met industry representatives for their views on the matter.The purpose of asking details relating to foreign travel was in order to tackle black money Jaitley said, adding that these details are not required in ITR-1 or ITR-4S which is filed by majority of individual taxpayers.The finance minister also said the process of electronic filing had been made simpler over the years, while during the last fiscal, 3.41 crore returns were filed electronically which constituted 87 percent of the all the returns.The government has also provided free ITR preparation software with the facility of pre-filled tax payment and tax deduction columns in the form to avoid data entry and mistakes.