India needs to move to a lower taxation level: Jaitley

Extraordinary high taxation rates in the past have led to higher tax aversions, he added

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said that India now needs to move to a lower level of taxation to be globally competitive.

"What you need is lower level of taxation, to provide services more competitive in nature. Competition is not domestic, it is global. This is one important change you will witness while you will be in service," Jaitley said.

Extraordinary high taxation rates in the past have led to higher tax aversions, the Finance Minister added.

He was addressing the officers at inauguration of professional training of 68th batch of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) (C&CE) Officers at the National Academy of Customs Excise and Narcotics here.

Emphasising that as the country needs to move to a tax-friendly environment, the Finance Minister said that the authorities need to be fair in interpreting the tax laws.

"Tax authorities are judged by the quality of what they write or what they decide. Level of fairness followed by tax authorities will define the quality of interpretation of tax laws by tax authorities. Voluntary compliance by citizens by payment of due taxes needs to be reciprocated by tax authorities by a tax-friendly administration," he added.

Officers should have a high-level of integrity, honesty, sincerity and do hard work with eagerness to learn new things, he said.

Jaitley said that payment of taxes is the basis of development of an economy.

"In Many economies while they develop, payment of taxes is part of citizens' duty," he said.