The government plans to announce within the next 10 days the final general anti-avoidance rules (GAAR), Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Friday.

The rules, introduced in this year's budget to check tax evasion, provoked an outcry from foreign investors who feared excessive scrutiny by the tax department. The government then deferred the implementation by a year and later set up a committee under tax expert Parthasarathi Shome to review the draft rules put out by the finance ministry.

"A decision has been taken on GAAR. The draft has been sent to the prime minister. Hopefully, the decision will be made public in the next seven-10 days," Chidambaram said, less than a week after the prime minister indicated measures to stave off investors' fears. The Shome Committee has suggested that the controversial rules be deferred until 2016-17 and that safeguards be put in place to ensure that taxpayers are not harassed by the rules that seek to deny tax benefit to any business arrangement entered solely for the purpose of avoiding taxes.

The committee has also proposed that capitals gains arising out of transactions in listed securities executed on stock exchanges not be taxed.

Though the I-T department is believed to have opposed any further delay in implementation of the rules, the government would be worried about the potential impact on investors' sentiment if it does not accept the committee's report. (PTI)