Committed to widen tax base in India, says Govt

Key Highlights

• The government said tax payers increased from 4.72 crore in financial year 2012-13 to 6.26 crore in FY17.
• The government is working on increasing the tax base further.
• Lower tax slabs to encourage tax payers was mulled over by the committee.

At the second meeting of the Consultative Committee on ‘Initiatives of IT Department’ on Friday the government said it was committed to widen the tax base by ‘incentivising’ new tax payers.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who headed the meet spoke of the initiatives of the Income Tax Department past two to three years.

“Some of the members suggested that some more incentives be given to the new tax papers so that more and more people are encouraged to file tax returns and pay due taxes which in turn would help in widening the tax base,” a report by Finance Ministry said.

A further reduction in tax slabs were also mulled over by the committee.

Direct Tax Revenue Collections up to September 18, 2017 in the FY18 rose to Rs 3.7 lakh crore with a growth of 15.7%, the government said.

Jaitley reiterated the initiatives of the IT department including a Single Page ITR-1 (SAHAJ) Form that was introduced for tax payers having income up to Rs 50 lakhs.

“Rate of tax for individuals having income of Rs 2.5 lakhs to Rs.5 lakhs was reduced from 10% to 5%, which is one among the lowest in the world,” Jailey added.

Highlighting other initiatives, Jaitley went on to talk about demonetisation as well as e-Sahyog and other digital initiatives.

Jaitley added that the number of tax payers increased from 4.72 crore in financial year 2012-13 to 6.26 crore during the Financial Year 2016-17.