WHILE speaking at the Annual Session of
the CII, the Union Finance Minister, Mr Arun Jaitley, said, Legitimate
taxes must be paid and should not be perceived as 'tax terrorism'.
Elaborating
on this, he clarified that while pursuing tax-related cases, the fairness
of the Government has been partly misunderstood and stressed that while India
does not practice tax terrorism, it is not a tax haven either (he said so
probably in the background of recent reports on the levy of MAT on capital
gains earned by FIIs).
The aim of the Government, he said, is to create a conducive business environment
by addressing the challenges faced, especially with respect to taxation, the
Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement bill, and corruption.
Reflecting on the last ten months, Mr Jaitley said, that in order to address
the most important challenge of restoring India’s credibility, the Government
decided to open up the economy even further and raised the FDI limit across
several sectors. However, while that would enable investments, it was critically
important to create a conducive business environment, with a special focus
on ease of doing business.
To facilitate ease of doing business, the Government is focusing on tax reforms
with the aim of pushing for the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax
(GST) and lowering the corporate tax rate. With respect to the land law, which
is commonly perceived as anti-farmer and detrimental to the cause of rural
India, the Minister said the Government was cognizant of the large population
that would get impacted, but was also aware of the potential of this to unleash
productivity and employment. Amendments in the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation
and Resettlement bill are required to support building of rural infrastructure
including roads, irrigation and industrial corridors.
Speaking on the issue of corruption, the Minister said that it was imperative
to distinguish between a corrupt act and an honest mistake in order to support
fair and fearless decision making.
The road map, he stressed, is very clear and the Government will do its share
by creating a policy framework that enables economic growth. The time now,
he said, is to slog to implement the changes at the ground level, and the Minister
sought the industry’s support in implementing these changes.
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