Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman urged tax professionals and researchers to put national priorities ahead of requests for individual rate cuts, exemptions and concessions at a Bengaluru conference on September 16, 2026. Akashvani reported that she was addressing the International Tax Research and Analysis Foundation's conference on New Age Taxation.
Sitharaman called for independent tax-policy research to become a regular part of public discussion, where proposals could be examined, challenged and improved. Her remarks extended beyond the annual pre-Budget exercise: she asked participants to consider the tax system India would need over the next two decades as it pursued its 2047 development objectives.
She also asked researchers to measure the effects of their recommendations, acknowledge trade-offs and offer workable alternatives where a proposal reduced government revenue. This was a request for evidence and policy options from the profession, rather than an announcement of a new tax rate at the conference.
An existing change to the government's own litigation policy illustrates one concrete instrument in that wider reform agenda. CBDT Circular 9 of 2024 raised the monetary thresholds for departmental appeals to Rs 60 lakh before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Rs 2 crore before High Courts and Rs 5 crore before the Supreme Court. The circular retained specified exceptions under which an appeal could be considered on its merits regardless of the monetary threshold.
The Finance Ministry reported on September 24, 2024 that the Supreme Court had disposed of 573 direct-tax cases involving tax effects below Rs 5 crore following the revised limit. It separately estimated that about 4,300 direct-tax cases would eventually be withdrawn across the three appellate levels. The reported disposals and the projected withdrawals were different measures, showing a documented change in departmental litigation alongside the minister's later call for research that specifies effects and costs.
