Time for India to be tax-compliant: Jaitley

Introspecting the non-compliance of tax havens with currency and fiscal reforms, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday asserted that it is important for the Indian economy to move from a non-compliant to a highly-compliant state.

Delivering the inaugural address at the Enforcement Day celebrations of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) here, the Finance Minister, while highlighting the importance of tax compliance urged the ED to exercise their power of penalising those who violate the law.

"The ED should extensively use its power to bring offenders to the forefront. Fear of the law will ensure automatic compliance with the norms," he said.

"Money laundering, round tripping through shell companies and the recent case of Havala transactions has lead to excessive dealing of the cash economy. Such offences affect greater interest of the public. Through taxes, we are looking to collect around Rs. 19 to 20 lakh crores," added Jaitley.

With regards to the existence of crime in the society, Jaitley revealed that although the nature of crime has seen a drastic change, it is still largely prevalent in the economy.

"With advancements in information technology, detection of crime has become easier than before. There is a lot of pressure on tax havens to obey taxation policies. They are under the fear of being declared as 'non-compliant'," he added.

The session, organised in the presence of Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia; Director of Enforcement Karnal Singh and former directors and officers of the ED aimed to identify and felicitate the perfomers, as well as analyse the changing role of the ED over the past decade.