Finance minister Sri Arun Jaitley on Saturday said that he does not favour burdening the salaried and middle-class with more taxes but would go after the evaders in widening the net.
In fact, he would encourage more money being put in the pockets of tax payers that will lead to spending and collection of more indirect taxes.
"This widening of the tax base. What does it mean? I pay the same indirect tax as my attendant. Our volume of consumption may be different. So everybody is paying indirect taxes.
"And literally almost half your taxes are indirect taxes today. He pays excise, he pays customs duty, he pays service tax. Now as far as income tax is concerned, to bring those who evade tax is widening the tax net, I am all for it," the minister said in an interaction with PTI journalists at PTI headquarters.
He was replying to a question on whether his budget would look at widening the tax base to maximize revenue.
Jaitley, who will be presenting his first full fledged budget in February, said that in his last budget he had increased the tax exemption limit from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh and would even raise it further if he had more money.
"After all what are we talking about Rs 2.5 lakh today means, taking all the deductions which we have given, somebody up to Rs 3.5-4 lakh does not have to pay tax. So we have reached the situation broadly.
"One earning Rs 35,000-40,000 per month, if the person puts some money for savings, (he) won't have to pay tax. But people falling in this bracket say that they don't save anything with salary of Rs 35,000-40,000 (with) the present cost of living, the transport cost, the fees of children and so on," Mr. Jaitley said.
If this exception increase then many mid class people will be benefited specially the people having loan from bank.
In fact, he would encourage more money being put in the pockets of tax payers that will lead to spending and collection of more indirect taxes.
"This widening of the tax base. What does it mean? I pay the same indirect tax as my attendant. Our volume of consumption may be different. So everybody is paying indirect taxes.
"And literally almost half your taxes are indirect taxes today. He pays excise, he pays customs duty, he pays service tax. Now as far as income tax is concerned, to bring those who evade tax is widening the tax net, I am all for it," the minister said in an interaction with PTI journalists at PTI headquarters.
He was replying to a question on whether his budget would look at widening the tax base to maximize revenue.
Jaitley, who will be presenting his first full fledged budget in February, said that in his last budget he had increased the tax exemption limit from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh and would even raise it further if he had more money.
"After all what are we talking about Rs 2.5 lakh today means, taking all the deductions which we have given, somebody up to Rs 3.5-4 lakh does not have to pay tax. So we have reached the situation broadly.
"One earning Rs 35,000-40,000 per month, if the person puts some money for savings, (he) won't have to pay tax. But people falling in this bracket say that they don't save anything with salary of Rs 35,000-40,000 (with) the present cost of living, the transport cost, the fees of children and so on," Mr. Jaitley said.
If this exception increase then many mid class people will be benefited specially the people having loan from bank.
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