FM Sitharaman bats for expanding tax net, ramping up collections

Revenue secy says I-T portal working fine, 300,000 returns being filed daily

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday stressed on increasing the tax net for achieving higher revenue collection to finance socio-economic schemes run by the Centre and state governments. 

“A larger number of assessees means higher tax collection, which provides funds for development,” Sitharaman said during her address after inaugurating the new Income Tax building here. 

Close to 60 million returns are filed in direct taxes — both personal income tax and corporation tax. As many as 26.6 million returns have been filed as on November 21 during the current assessment year, according to the income tax site. 

Revenue secretary Tarun Bajaj said the I-T portal, which had faced technical glitches, was now working smoothly and 300,000 returns were being filed daily. “We are targeting to increase it to 2-2.5 million filings a day,” he said, adding that a new system was being developed, wherein all the expenditure and incomes of a tax assessee will be collated automatically for verification.

At another programme here, Sitharaman said higher Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections for the next two years will be important to achieve the targeted economic growth. 

Till October this financial year, GST collections crossed Rs 1 trillion in every month with the lone exception of June. 

Underlining that the country’s tax mop-up had been robust, Sitharaman said tax devolution to states was progressing well and the Centre had advanced the payment of the March instalment to ensure that the ongoing projects were not affected. Bajaj said although revenue collection was satisfactory, the next four months would be important. “Advance tax filing would gain momentum next month and it is the period when maximum revenue is generated. The revenues help the states and the Centre in funding infra, development and social security projects,” he said. 

UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said simplification of tax filing procedures will help increase tax net and collections. “People want to pay tax, but avoid the complexities. The Centre has rationalised the procedures, but they could be simplified further. Simplification of the processes would increase tax revenue and check evasion,” he said. 

Sitharaman said tax collection in UP had improved a lot owing to the coordinated efforts between the central and state government officials. “The filing of direct tax returns in Eastern UP has increased from 380,000 in 2016 to 2.18 million in March 2021, which indicates the large potential for economic activities in the region.”