As India celebrated the Income Tax Day on July 24, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that direct tax collection in the country has doubled during the last five years and said it was a big achievement. She added that 6.68 crore people in the country file returns electronically.
While addressing a gathering of Income Tax officers, she added that the larger principle behind taxation is better and equitable redistribution of wealth among those who earn well and those who are not able to do so.
“Revenue generation is something that no country can ignore. India, at this stage of development, cannot certainly ignore revenue collection,” the Finance Minister said.
Making a case for widening the tax base, Sitharaman said only about eight crore people file income tax returns in a large country like India.
“Aren’t there more people who are supposed to pay tax? What stops people from paying income tax,” she asked, adding that Income Tax Department officials should use creative ways to reach out to more tax payers.
“The Revenue Department has three enforcement departments – Income Tax Department, Enforcement Directorate and the Department of Revenue Intelligence. If these three were to work together and share information and help the assessee not to avoid and not to evade, then there would be no need to go further,” Sitharaman said.
However, she cautioned the Income Tax Officers not to suspect every tax payer but to watch out for those “who are gaming the system”.
