new delhi the controversial new income tax return forms which had been put on hold will be far more simplified finance minister arun jaitley said today but kept the suspense on if the requirement of disclosing all bank accounts and foreign travels will be retained he said after having public consultations he has asked the income tax department to come up with the simplest form which is available they cbdt are coming out with a proposal now that i am free from parliament they will put up before me he told in an interview when asked whether the number of pages of the forms will be cut down from thirteen and a half asked whether the queries on foreign travel and bank accounts considered by many as intrusive would be dropped in the revised form the minister said you wait but i can only tell you it will be far more simplified he seemed to suggest that the questions about foreign travel and all bank accounts would be limited to a section of tax assessees as far as 8 or 9 out of 10 tax payers are involved their form has to be very simplethere are various kinds of details which are to be filled up may be absolutely redundant for them jaitley said in reply to a question on the queries in the forms that triggered a controversy the simplified it return form is being brought after the earlier version was opposed by industry mps and assessees for its cumbersome disclosure norms i am in favour of the easing this was twelve or twelve and a half page form which has existed three or four more questions were addedso it became thirteen and a half pages i was in washington when i came to know of this i immediately called up and said stop it because to me whether it was twelve and a half or thirteen and a half both seem a little excessive jaitley said the salaried individuals and those persons who do not have businessprofessional income are required to file income tax returns in either itr1 or itr2 by july 31 following the controversy over the new itr forms which sought details of bank accounts and foreign visits the revenue department announced putting them on hold the itr forms which was notified last month by the cbdt for the current assessment year had specific columns for banks accounts ifsc code names of joint account holders and foreign visits including the ones paid by the companies