Context:

In the latest development, the government has launched a drive to make taxation fairer and taxpayers fearless in the country.

Issues of tax evasion in India

• Relative to other developing countries, the fact that India’s income tax comprises 5% of its GDP is due to the fact nearly 1-3% of the population is exposed to income taxation.
• According to the income tax department, out of a population of 130 crore people, only 1.5 crores pay income tax.
• Although India has improved its tax-to-GDP ratio in the last few years, it is still far lower than the average DECD ratio which is 34 percent.
• India’s tax-GDP ratio plunged to 9.88% in FY20, the lowest in 10 years.
• The ratio stood at 10.97 percent in FY19, and at 11.22 percent in FY18.

The Initiative taken by the government to improve tax collection

• focus of the tax reforms in recent times has been on reduction in tax rates and on simplification of direct tax laws.
• To bring more transparency in official communication CBDT introduced Document Identification Number (DIN).
• IT Department has moved forward with refilling of income tax returns to make compliance more convenient for individual taxpayers. Compliance norms for startups have also been simplified.
• The government has also created Voluntary Disclosure of Income Schemes, whereby black income and assets can actually be declared without penalty or prosecution.
• The Corporate Tax rates were reduced from 30 percent to 22 percent and for new manufacturing units, the rates were reduced to 15 percent. The dividend distribution Tax was also abolished.
• To provide for the resolution of pending tax disputes the IT Department also brought out the Direct Tax “Vivad se Vishwas Act, 2020”.