The Income-Tax Bill, 2025, likely to be introduced in Parliament on February 13. The new Bill prescribes the existing process for tax authorities to gain access to the digital space or a computer device only during search and survey operations. When asked about controversy surrounding the authorities being granted ‘additional’ powers to breach the passwords of electronic records, including email, social media handles and Cloud storage space of the taxpayers, the official rejected the claims. \”Such reports are nothing but fear mongering. The tax department is not into snooping of social media accounts or online activities of a taxpayer,\” he told PTI. The government has brought the new Bill in order to change the decades-old I-T Act of 1961 with an aim to make the bulky direct tax law simpler and easier for the taxpayers. The official said that the power for such a coercive action ‘already existed’ in the 1961 Act, and these have only been reiterated in the Income Tax Bill of 2025. In this digital and e-enabled world, information is stored in servers and storage facilities abroad, which are not accessible from India and the access code is not provided by the person concerned. In such circumstances, the entire exercise of search and seizure gets redundant and can result in the tax evader going scot-free, officials said.