Blackmoney: CBDT rejigs panel to handle FATCA cases

The CBDT has rejigged a special committee formed to secure confidential tax data and initiate a check on instances of black money as part of mutual exchange of information with US authorities under the recently inked Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).

Through an order issued days before FATCA was signed by the two countries on July 9, the CBDT has increased the strength of the panel from existing seven to eight members. It has also replaced one of its members with an officer dealing with issues of international taxation in the CBDT.

An order issued in this regard, also accessed by PTI, said a Joint Secretary in the CBDT dealing with foreign tax issues has been added to the panel, while a Commissioner of Income Tax rank officer has been replaced by and officer of the same rank. The committee is headed by the Member (Income Tax) of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) who is a Special <g data-gr-id="18">Secretary-rank</g> officer in the Finance Ministry.

The new composition of the panel, called Information Security Committee (ISC), now includes three Joint Secretary rank officers handling the sensitive foreign tax exchange information and policy matters and four Commissioners of I-T dealing with investigation and intelligence subjects of the I-T department apart from one on global tax subjects.