The Indian Finance Minister has issued a discussion draft of the Direct Tax Code (DTC), 2013. This draft contains proposals for extra taxes on high net worth individuals, a lower threshold than earlier proposed for imposing tax on the offshore sale of Indian assets and a general review of the operation of the General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR).

The Direct Taxes Code (DTC) represents an effort to amend and simplify the direct tax laws in India into a single tax code. The original version of the draft law, DTC 2010, went to Parliament in August 2010 and recommendations have been made by a number of interested parties and from the Standing Committee on Finance (SCF) which was created for this purpose. As a result of the comments received and proposals of the SCF a new draft has been created.

A number of the changes to the earlier draft have already been enacted in recent Finance Acts, for example the GAAR, tax on indirect asset transfers and the expanded source rule in the case of certain royalties and technical service fees.