The Income Tax bill, introduced in February 2025, significantly expands tax authorities’ powers beyond the Income Tax Act, 1961 and allows officials to access assessees’ email and social media accounts.
As per Section 247, officials can access and search any “virtual digital space”—broadly defined under Section 261(i) as social media, emails, and online accounts—if tax evasion is suspected, effective April 1, 2026.
Present Income Tax Act allows officials to seize assets, books
In the current Income Tax Act, 1961, Section 132 allows officials to only seize assets and books during the search operation in case of suspected tax evasion.
Once the Income Tax Bill 2025 is passed, the new Act will expand the powers of the ‘authorised officers’ and allow them to access digital space.
As per the bill, the ‘authorised officers’ are senior tax officials, including Joint Directors, Additional Directors, Joint Commissioners, Additional Commissioners, Assistant or Deputy Directors, Assistant or Deputy Commissioners, Income Tax Officers, and Tax Recovery Officers.
New IT act threatens digital privacy of citizens, says KTR
Reacting to the bill, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao has raised serious concerns. He called it a grave threat to the digital privacy of all citizens.
The former Telangana minister for information technology condemned the provisions of the new bill which he believes signal an alarming overreach by the government under the pretext of tax enforcement.
“Centre’s new IT Act poses a serious threat to the digital privacy of all citizens. The new Income Tax Bill seeks to grant IT officials unchecked access to social media, emails, and online trading accounts under the guise of tax scrutiny. This unprecedented invasion of ‘virtual digital spaces’ could lead to harassment, misuse, and mass surveillance,” said KTR.
“With financial data already subject to multiple reporting mechanisms, this draconian intrusion tramples on citizens’ fundamental rights and digital privacy. Who will hold officials accountable if there is any misuse of this overreaching provision? The PM and FM must answer,” added KTR.
Meanwhile, legal experts warn of potential privacy violations under Article 21, as upheld in the 2017 Puttaswamy judgment.
