Tax reforms helped people save ₹2.5 lakh crore, says Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that tax reforms since 2014 have helped people save ₹2.5-lakh crore. He also urged tax officials to follow the “principles of Ram Rajya” in providing better governance.

Inaugurating the new campus of National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes & Narcotics (NACIN) at Palasamudram, Andhra Pradesh, Modi quoted Ramcharitmanas to highlight the welfare aspect of taxation and pledged that every paisa of tax received from people will go into the welfare of the people to stimulate prosperity. He talked about tax reforms in the last 10 years. He recalled “non-transparent” tax systems of earlier times which have now been replaced by a modern system in the form of GST and simplified income tax faceless assessment.

“All these reforms have resulted in record tax collection,” Modi said, adding: ‘We are returning people’s money through various schemes.” He said the IT exemption limit was raised from the income of ₹2 lakh to ₹7 lakh. He said tax reforms after 2014 have resulted in tax savings of about ₹2.5-lakh crore for the citizens. He said the number of taxpayers is consistently increasing in the country as they feel happy that their tax money is put to good use. “Whatever we took from people, we returned it to people and this is good governance and the message of Ram Rajya”, he said.

Latest data show that number of persons filing Income Tax Returns increased to 74 million in Assessment Year 2022-23 from 70 million in AY 2021-22. For the Assessment Year 2023-24, a total of 82 million ITRs have been filed till December 31, 2023. Further, according to an SBI research report, ITRs filed by individual taxpayers earning between ₹5 lakh and ₹10 lakh climbed by 295 per cent in the assessment years (AY) 2013–14 and 2021–22, showing a positive trend of migration to higher range of gross total income.  The number of ITRs filed by people earning between ₹10 lakh and ₹25 lakh has also increased by nearly 3 times (291 per cent) during the same period.  It may also be noted that average monthly GST collection is now ₹1.60-lakh crore.

Optimum utilisation

The Prime Minister also highlighted the special attention paid to the optimum utilisation of resources in Ram Rajya. He said the previous government “tended to stall, shelve and divert projects causing huge losses to the nation” and said these were the tendencies that Lord Ram cautioned his brother Bharat against. He highlighted that in the last 10 years, the present government has laid emphasis on completing projects on time.

Quoting Goswami Tulsidas and Ramcharitmanas, Modi highlighted the need to create a system that supports the poor and weeds out the non-deserving. He informed that in the last 10 years, 10 crore fake names have been weeded out of the documents. “Today, every paisa reaches the bank account of the beneficiary who is entitled to it. Fight against corruption and action against corrupt people has been the priority of the government”, he said. 

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