He said the Center is also working to reduce the number of GST forms. (Representative)
New Delhi:
GST rates can be further reduced once the tax base increases and everyone pays taxes properly, Finance Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey said Thursday.
“Once the tax base increases and if we are able to enforce our tax laws and everyone pays taxes properly, there will certainly be room for further tax reduction,” he said. .
Addressing a session on “Digitization in Governance” at CAPAM 2020, he said the ultimate goal should be to collect minimum taxes at minimum rates.
“The government should collect the taxes that are absolutely necessary and to that extent we must increase our tax base,” he said.
Mr Pandey said the government is also working to reduce the number of GST forms.
He said there were 495 forms in the pre-GST era with 17 different taxes that were collected by various states.
“After the introduction of the GST, the number of forms dropped to 17-18 and we want to further reduce the number of GST forms,” he added.
He said that with computer platforms there is no longer a raj inspector now and the GST regime has become faceless.
Elaborating on new measures for the assessment of income tax, including faceless assessment of taxpayers, he said the government is working to promote self-compliance.
He added that the government is also working to provide the tax profile of each taxpayer.
“We have all the information and if it can be shared securely, protecting the privacy of the individual, it will also help get loans from banks. The entire digital exercise is undertaken in various ministries. We make all of this information available and provide it to every taxpayer, ”Mr. Pandey said.
He also said that all information is integrated for the benefit of citizens including ease of doing business, ease of life and capacity building.
Highlighting the importance of digitization, Pandey said India was the only country to have Aadhaar, Aadhaar-enabled payment system, direct benefit transfer system and a system of UPI payment. “The use of digitization in governance has improved our speed, effectiveness, efficiency and capabilities,” he added.
He noted that in the past three months, Aadhaar-enabled transactions have crossed Rs 50,000 crore and the UPI transaction has supported debit card transactions and cash withdrawals.
Referring to the income trend, he said all the numbers gave an encouraging signal that the economy was getting back on track sooner than expected when the lockdown began.
(This story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
