Comments
New Delhi, March 28
The Rajya Sabha began discussions on the Finance Bill and the Appropriation Bill on Monday. Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, participating in the debate, pitched for a Direct Taxes Code and asked Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to bring a new draft of the Direct Taxes Code to Parliament by getting rid of the outdates provisions in the Code drafted by the UPA.
Chidambaram said the only beneficiaries of the Income Tax Act are chartered accountants and provisions such as faceless assessment are regressive for assessees. He said the world is going through a churning and it requires sound tax policies, sound financial management and sound economic management.
He said in faceless assessment, an assessee doesn’t know who the assessing officer is. “We don’t know where he is. We don’t know whether he has all the past records of the last 20 or 30 years. We don’t know what assistance he gets. How is this an improvement? Of course, some people will argue a faceless assessment is a great improvement. According to me, this is a regressive provision. Numerous people have complained to me that this faceless assessment has put them through enormous hardship, because we even don’t know who is hearing the matter, who is deciding the matter and what records he has,” Chidambaram said.
On Appropriation Bill, Chidambaram said the total of indirect taxes and direct taxes touched 11.2 per cent in 2017-18 and in this year, it is 10.8 per cent and next year it will come down to 10.7 per cent.
“If your total tax, as a proportion of GDP, falls by as much as 0.4 per cent or 0.5 per cent, there is something seriously wrong with your tax policies and tax administration. Taxes, as a proportion of GDP, are low in India when compared to other developed countries and other emerging economies,” he said and added that we should increase our taxes as a proportion of GDP. “The burden must be shared equitably. People must pay taxes, but the rich must pay more; the people who accumulate wealth must pay more,” he added.
Cryptocurrencies
BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said cryptocurrencies are a gambling and taxes on them must be increased. “It is a form of lottery, a form of horse racing... When you put money in share market you know companies who are behind it but who are behind crypto?,” he said and added: “I would like to request the finance minister that the 30 per cent tax that you have imposed on crypto, please consider in the coming days if this tax can be further increased.”
Senior Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil urged the Centre to decrease the taxes on petrol and diesel. He said the provisions in the Finance Bill are to help the big business and it will widen the gap between the rich and the poor.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.