Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that increased digitization will help in making better assessment of India’s Gross domestic product (GDP) growth and nudged tax practitioners to suggest their clients to shift towards digital modes of payments. She said the government, irrespective of the party in power, tries to widen the tax net and at the same time, lower the tax burden in its pursuit of revenue collection, and tax practitioners can play a critical role in this by ensuring timely compliance by taxpayers.
Sitharaman has stated that the country's GDP will remain ‘underestimated’ if commercial transactions do not come under monitorable radar. She said ‘if each of these transactions are brought into some kind of monitorable network, your GDP calculation can be closer to the actual strength of Indian economy.’ She also said tax practitioners today are the most important component, because they educate the tax assessee, counsel them, tell them about the best ways of handling their tax liabilities, and help them plan it in such a way that what is due comes from an honest taxpayer in time.
The minister further said that in a growing economy like India, the government tries to widen the tax net and, at the same time, look at ways to bring down the burden of taxes. She noted that tax practitioners' role comes to play there. As a result, she said they are the biggest critical role players in revenue generation of the government. She pointed out that since tax practitioners come in between the government and the tax assessees, they have a critical role to play in promoting in-time compliance. She added that the government has taken a lot of steps to make sure taxation becomes a simplified exercise and the burden on citizens is reduced, both for compliance and payment of tax.