New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a platform for “Transparent Taxation – Honouring the Honest” on Thursday through video conferencing. Speaking on the occasion he said that the process of Structural Reforms in the country has reached new heights today. PM Modi said the platform of “Transparent Taxation – Honouring the Honest, has been launched to meet the requirements of the 21st century taxation system. He elaborated that the platform has major reforms like Faceless Assessment, Faceless Appeal and Taxpayers Charter.
He said that Faceless Assessment and Taxpayers Charter have come into force from today while the facility of faceless appeal will be available for citizens across the country from 25th September i.e. Deen Dayal Upadhyay’s birth anniversary. The new platform apart from being faceless is also aimed at boosting the confidence of the taxpayer and making him/her fearless.
The PM said that the focus of the Government in the last six years has been “Banking the Unbanked, Securing the Unsecured and Funding the Unfunded” and that the platform of “Honouring the Honest” is in the similar direction. He praised the role of honest taxpayers in nation building and said that making the lives of such taxpayers easy is the responsibility of the government. “When the life of an honest taxpayer of the country becomes easy, he moves forward and develops, then the country also develops and leaps forward,” PM added.
Referring to the reduction of the scrutiny of the cases by at least four times in the last six years from 0.94% in 2012-13 to 0.26% in 2018-19, Prime Minister said this itself is a reflection of the trust that the Government is laying on the returnees. He said in the last 6 years, India has seen a new model of governance evolving in tax administration. Amidst all these efforts, he said the number of people filing income tax returns has increased by about 2.5 crores in the last 6-7 years. The Prime Minister however said that it can also not be denied that only 1.5 Crore people pay the taxes in a country of 130 crores. Modi urged people to introspect themselves and come forward to pay the taxes due.
