Hard line

Not everyone is happy at the government’s assurances to domestic and foreign investors that some of the more stringent measures in the Direct Taxes Code and the General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR) may be scaled down. Tax officers, who had once lobbied strongly for tougher enforcement, are deeply miffed. As one official pointed out, the government should simply abolish the income tax and put up a dropbox for people who voluntarily want to pay taxes. “You don’t want to chase people who are avoiding taxes… Anyway, whatever is collected in the form of direct taxes goes into social sector schemes where the benefit rarely reaches the people for whom it is meant. So, indirect tax collections should be enough to meet your essential expenses like salaries and defence,” he added.