May
raise tax exemption limit further: Arun Jaitley
NEW DELHI: Finance
minister Arun Jaitley on
Saturday said that he does not favour burdening the salaried and middle-class
with more taxes but would go after the evaders in widening the net.
In fact, he would
encourage more money being put in the pockets of tax payers that
will lead to spending and collection of more indirect taxes.
"This widening of
the tax base. What does it mean? I pay the same indirect tax as my attendant.
Our volume of consumption may be different. So everybody is paying indirect
taxes.
"And literally
almost half your taxes are indirect taxes today. He pays excise, he pays
customs duty, he pays service tax. Now as far as income tax is concerned, to
bring those who evade tax is widening the tax net, I am all for it," the
minister said in an interaction with PTI journalists at PTI headquarters.
He was replying to a
question on whether his budget would look at widening the tax base to maximise
revenue.
Jaitley, who will be
presenting his first full fledged budget in February, said that in his last
budget he had increased the tax exemption limit from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh
and would even raise it further if he had more money.
"After all what
are we talking about Rs 2.5 lakh today means, taking all the deductions which
we have given, somebody up to Rs 3.5-4 lakh does not have to pay tax. So we
have reached the situation broadly.
"One earning Rs
35,000-40,000 per month, if the person puts some money for savings, (he) won't
have to pay tax. But people falling in this bracket say that they don't save
anything with salary of Rs 35,000-40,000 (with) the present cost of living, the
transport cost, the fees of children and so on," Jaitley said.
Therefore, the
minister said, he was against reducing the exemptions to widen the tax net.
"Then that's not my approach," he added.
"So I am quite
willing, if I had my way and I had more money in my pocket, I would like to
expand. But today the revenue position is challenging. Last time I gave several
concessions, which were actually beyond my means.
"But it's all
fine to bring those who evade tax under the tax net. But to bring this
vulnerable section into the tax net, that can't be the policy today. In fact if
you put additional money in their pockets and allow them to spend, then I
collect correspondingly more indirect taxes so I will rather encourage more
economic activity."
On black money within
the country, he said: "It is huge quantity and more easily traceable.
Because you go to real estate, you go to land, you go to mining, you go to
jewellery, you go to luxury goods, you will find the domestic (black money).
You go to educational institutions, you will find it there. Therefore to trace
out the buyers and the recipients is also easy."
Source : Times of India