UP Income Tax Lawyers against New Tax Return Forms

Lucknow, June 22 (IANS) The Income Tax Bar Association of Uttar Pradesh is up in arms against the union finance ministry's decision to replace the traditional 'SARAL' form by a new set of forms for filing annual tax returns.

"The new forms being introduced by the finance ministry were not only lengthy but also cumbersome and certainly against the larger interest of the people," the bar association spokesman S.K. Kohli told a press conference here Friday evening.

"It was really strange that even while our top leaders always talk about simplifying procedures for the common public, the new forms were clearly aimed at complicating things for an assessee," Kohli said.

"As against the earlier single-page 'SARAL' form, assessees of different categories would now have to fill in seven to 27 pages," he pointed out.

The association has demanded immediate withdrawal of the revised set of forms and reversal to the earlier one. They were already in the process of mobilising their counterparts across the country to build further pressure on the central government.