Idea of higher tax to run state is 'anti-people': FM

Asserting that government does not subscribe to the ideology of imposing higher taxes to run the state, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today termed such an idea as "anti-people".

He also allayed apprehensions that the government was foregoing significant taxes.

Referring to tax exemption in the housing sector, he said: "We are happy to forego that tax because it is a pro-people foregoing."

Jaitley made the remarks in the Rajya Sabha while speaking on the Appropriation (No 4) Bill, 2014.

"But you raise it, and to use the Marxian phraseology, it is an anti-people argument to say, tax the people more, tax them at a higher rate, in order to run the State. We don't subscribe to that ideology," he said.