Ahmedabad: The Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) has flagged a quiet but consequential gap in the Finance Bill, 2026 that could leave taxpayers at the mercy of individual assessing officers. In a letter to finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the business body has asked that a minimum 30-day window be written into law to allow taxpayers to respond with an updated return to the reassessment notices. Without this floor, the GCCI argues, the timeline is entirely at the discretion of the officer issuing the notice. The chamber says this creates unacceptable uncertainty for taxpayers trying to comply voluntarily.Jainik Vakil, chairman of the direct tax committee of the GCCI, raised the concern in a post-budget memorandum. He said, “The Finance Bill, 2026 proposes to expand the updated return framework by allowing taxpayers to file an updated return even after reassessment proceedings have been initiated and a notice has been issued under Section 280 of the Income Tax Act, 2025. The stated aim is to cut litigation and encourage voluntary compliance. Under the proposed changes, Section 263(6)(b) of the I-T Act, 2025, would be amended to permit filing an updated return in response to a notice under Section 280, ‘within the time period specified in that notice’. “A parallel amendment is proposed to Section 139(8A) of the I-T Act, 1961, allowing an updated return to be filed in response to a notice under Section 148, again ‘within the period mentioned in the notice’. In both cases, once a taxpayer opts for this route, the return cannot be filed in response to the same notice through any other mode,” he said.The problem, Vakil argues, lies in the phrase “within such period as specified in the said notice”. As currently worded, it hands the assessing officer unchecked discretion over how much time a taxpayer gets, with no floor set by law.GCCI has recommended that both Section 139 of the 1961 I-T Act and Section 263 of the 2025 I-T Act be amended to guarantee a statutory minimum of 30 days from the date of service of the notice, regardless of whatever period the officer specifies.
