In this episode of Editorial, Mr. Sujit Nair discusses the revamped Income Tax Bill, 2025. He highlights how, if passed, the bill could breach the privacy of Indians while granting extreme powers to the Income Tax Department. Mr. Nair raises five critical unanswered questions about the new bill. He also delves into how data leaks and privacy breaches have become increasingly common in India.
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[00:00:00] Namaskar Welcome to another episode of editorial Our finance minister has introduced the revamped income tax bill 2025 in the parliament Now she says you know this 6 decade old tax framework I am going to change it I am going to remove it
[00:00:27] Now that is one point But what is actually happening with this revamped income tax bill 2025 Is now the taxman can come and almost breach your privacy in all possible ways Let's discuss this in detail Let's get right into the show
[00:00:55] So you know during the budget when Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman was very benevolent in giving tax exemptions and others to people She was very benevolent I was actually surprised and honestly speaking honestly speaking I was wondering when the axe is going to fall
[00:01:23] Because something bad has to happen With something good something bad will follow I am more or less very clear especially when it comes to finance and money in this country It's very clear So I was wondering Okay, exemptions are there, what will happen now And then happened You see she has introduced a revamped income tax bill 2025
[00:01:52] Which is now given to a select committee And that select committee is headed by Lok Sabha MP Bhai Jain Panda Headed by Lok Sabha MP Who is the Vice President of Bharatiya Janta He is heading it So Bhai Jain Panda Under the leadership of Bhai Jain Panda There is a bill Which she has introduced And the bill is very clear You see up to recently A tax man A tax inspector Could come and check your Laptops Your hard disk
[00:02:22] And so on and so forth In fact He can ask for access of your laptops Hard disk Email etc But your digital records Your digital records Was in ambiguity He or she Didn't have the right To take her digital records He or she Didn't have the right To get into your Facebook Or your Instagram Or your That he or she Didn't have the right to And you could go to court You could go to court And the court Could push back
[00:02:52] That those evidences Or those Those kind of Those kind of Those kind of records Which they access This is the current status Now Nirmala Sitaraman says why Why Why shouldn't Indian need privacy Finally Baba it is about money So money when it comes to money No privacy nothing Everything should be open The person who is controlling money Should have all the powers Everything in
[00:03:20] In the world Under the Under the sun Should be in control of the person Or the person who is collecting money from you The person who comes to say Lagando Lagando Lagando Tax though That person should have all the control She says in the new bill That A tax officer now can enter Search any building Place Vessel Vehicle Aircraft Whatever At his will A tax man can have Possession of your Information Your electronic records
[00:03:50] From in any form Books Electronic records Electronic Device He can have access to He can break open any lock Any door Any box Any locker He can have access to your virtual digital space He can have access to your emails like I told you before but he can also have access to your Facebook account He can also have access to your Instagram account
[00:04:15] He can have access to your online investment account website if you have any remote server on cloud digital application platform and other space similar in nature So today So today There is nothing There is nothing that you can say is private A tax man can access have access to anything and everything that he or she wants if he or she wants to
[00:04:41] Which means a tax man can look into your Facebook page Now a lot of you all may ask So what? So what if the government wants to kind of check your digital record and you know check your social media and all that? So what? The government has to collect money from the taxi reader Government has to collect it So what?
[00:05:10] If you have nothing to hide then what are you talking about? Is a lot of people may ask Let me Make five points Five points My point number one Is You see why is it That this government is Mary Ladli Pahina Pradhan Mantri Awaz Yojana Pradhan Mantri Jan Kalyan Yojana
[00:05:40] And everything before the election And right after all the elections major elections are over you have the Income tax Bill 2025 Where now it is about reading you Catching you Getting into your Facebook Getting into your Instagram page Getting into your email And trying to find out if you are in your Facebook In your Facebook you are going to put a photograph You know I have hidden my money here Here is where my money is I am going to put it in my Facebook
[00:06:08] Which the tax man will come and say Oh Facebook Very good That is nice So this is what I want to ask Why are there two governments Before the election government After the election Election government Before the election government Give give give give give give After the election government Collect collect collect collect collect Why? Why are there two governments in our country? Number one Number two is
[00:06:38] You think When my personal life Is exposed to a tax man Can the government give me a guarantee That the person who is coming to raid me Is a person who is absolutely honest And will be fair to my Personal information Which is possibly valuable to him As a tax man or not Will be preserved How do I know my personal information
[00:07:07] Which may not relate anything to taxes It may relate to my political preferences It may relate to my something else My personal preferences My personal relationship My political relationship It may relate to all of that How can the government today guarantee me That this person will not leak it out? Do you want to learn something about tax officials in India? Okay I will tell you something about tax officials in India February 7th to 2025 CBI raids 18 sites
[00:07:36] Over tax officers leaking secret data to chartered accountant Tax officers raid karta hai Secret data aata hai Chartered accountants ko deta hai This CBI raided 27th February 2025 7th October 2024 CBI charge sheeted against IT departmental official Arrested in bribery case That is October Telingana August 23, 2024 Telingana tax officer caught taking 35,000 bribe
[00:08:04] CBI arrests principal commissioner of income tax In 10 lakh rupees bribery case August 2028, 2024 This is what? 4 tax officials arrested for abduction extortion Of 1.5 crores from a businessman A tax official was arrested for abduction For crying out loud This happened in September 11, 2024 And this happened in Bangalore December 13, 2024 Assistant commercial tax officer
[00:08:32] Two others held for fraud over 4 crores in Odisha What are we talking about? These are the people who is going to get into my private Facebook My private internet ID My website My emails My private pictures I have pictures with my family Pictures of my family What I write to my wife What I write to my son What I write to my uncle What I write to my friend What I write to my political colleague What I advise another client Everything he or she has access to
[00:09:00] And I am supposed to believe that these people Who are raided for extortion Who are raided for bribery I am supposed to And who are raided for leaking out information I am supposed to hand it over to them Why? Because Mrs. Nirmala Sitaraman feels so So the first The second question I wanted to ask is What are you trying to achieve out of it? Is it really money that you are gunning after? Or is it something else That is
[00:09:28] What you want to achieve out of this kind of This kind of outrageous rights That you are giving your tax officials Similar to what possibly Congress gave The enforcement directorate And what you maintained with the enforcement directorate Are you trying to create another force Like the enforcement directorate? That is my question 2 My question 3 My question 3 Is people like Adani and Ambani Will such raids happen?
[00:09:58] Will the tax officials dare Go and get into their Facebook page Or their Will this tax official dare get into their houses? Forget about Facebook page When these people When Madhvi Butch was questioned by the High Court The finance minister intervened And she said that no they have given some logical answers Finance minister intervened So for a common person The finance minister says Is his Facebook page Facebook page
[00:10:28] What's up? Instagram Take everything Strip the man Of his privacy Strip him of his privacy Let everything that he has Everything that he holds to his chest Let everything pull it out Look at the price That is if you are after money This is how a common man is treated Would the same treatment be given to an Adani? An Ambani? But the government seems to be talking for them
[00:10:58] So Are all these Everything for a common man? That's my question number 3 My question number 4 How do we know that This information that the tax man collects Will not be used against you? Especially if you are a politician Your information that you have on your digital records That information Those information Could be used against you tomorrow
[00:11:25] You may be discussing a political strategy With your colleague You may be discussing a political strategy Against an opposition All those Can also be accessed by this tax man How do you know that This tax man will not leak This information? How do you know that The government in power Will not use this information Against that particular political party Or that particular political person? Haven't we seen
[00:11:54] The amount of information that has been leaked? Documents, photographs, conversation between two people? Where do you think those leaks are happening from? So how do we know that These documents These information Will not be leaked And these information Will not be used to blackmail the political Or possibly even a common man For that matter of fact
[00:12:22] If somebody from the tax department wants to play dirty And blackmail him or her Last but not the least You see, privacy is something that this government has been taking very lightly
[00:12:49] And privacy under the garb of nationalism Under the garb of nation wants to know Under the garb of security That's what this government has been doing How has all this breach of privacy Helped a common man From 2014 till date Pray tell me Pray tell me Has it bettered our life?
[00:13:19] Has it made things better for us? Are we earning more? Is our healthcare system better? Is our education system better? We talk We make ads We make posters We make banners But on ground Actually has it helped? Except for taking away How has this concept of breaching privacy Taking up Indians privacy for granted
[00:13:47] How has it helped an Indian? That's the question I want to ask tonight I want to end my editorial with So think about it And write down your comments below Till I see you next time That's tomorrow at 10