This committee would manage the consultation process and finalise the draft GAAR Guidelines.
2. While postponing GAAR by one year to 2013 was a very welcome move, a widespread consultative process is necessary to generate a discussion on GAAR provisions so that there is an informed debate on how GAAR is going to operate. Some steps have been taken in this direction:
a) Department of Revenue undertook some consultations with stakeholders before finalising a first draft set of guidelines. This consultation was done by invitation.
b) Subsequently, at
3. While these steps are good in themselves, a need was felt for far more widespread consultations. There is a need to have greater clarity on many other fronts. With this in view, the Prime Minister has constituted this Expert Committee which will bring transparency and a high degree of technical expertise to the consultation process.
4. For this purpose, an Expert Committee on GAAR has been constituted consisting of:
1) Parthasarathi Shome, Chairman
2) N Rangachary, former chairman, IRDA, Member
3) Ajay Shah, Professor, NIPFP, Member
4) Sunil Gupta, Joint Secretary, Tax Policy and Legislation, Department of Revenue, Member