Ajay Bhushan Pandey, Finance Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Govt of India, said that GST rates can be reduced further if the tax base increases. Once the tax base increases and everyone pays taxes properly there will be definitely scope for further reduction of taxes. Addressing a session on Digitization in Governance' at CAPAM 2020, Pandey noted that government should collect taxes which are absolutely necessary and to that extent we need to increase our tax base.
Pandey further said that Government is also working on reducing the number of forms under the GST. He said that there were 495 forms in the pre-GST era with 17 different taxes which were levied by various states. He added that with IT-enabled platforms, there is no inspector raj now, and GST regime has become faceless.
Elaborating on the new measures undertaken for income tax assessment, including the faceless assessment of taxpayers, he said that the Government is working on promoting self-compliance. He added that Government is also working on providing full tax profile for each taxpayer. He also said that all the information is getting integrated for the benefit of the citizens, including ease of doing business, ease of living and is also enhancing our capabilities.
Stressing on the importance of digitization, Pandey said that India is the only country to have Aadhaar, Aadhaar-enabled payment system, direct benefit transfer scheme and UPI payment scheme. In last 3 months, the total Aadhaar-enabled transaction has crossed Rs. 50,000 crore and UPI transaction has taken over debit card transaction and cash withdrawals.
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