Moderate taxes, high evasions cannot coexist: Jaitley

Mumbai, Aug 20 (PTI) Amid intense speculation over therate of Goods and Services Tax (GST), Finance Minister ArunJaitley today said moderate taxes and high evasions cannotcoexist. "If all taxpayers pay their taxes, it will help bring intax rates further low. The more the evasions and exemptions,the higher will be the tax rate. So, moderate tax rates andevasions cannot co-exist," Jaitley told a meeting of BJPworkers here. The minister was replying to a demand made by AshishShelar, Mumbai BJP unit president, to bring the proposed GSTrate at 17 per cent. Explaining the rationale further, the minister said whenmore people evade taxes, it brings in an aberration in taxstructures. The proposed uniform taxation regime, GST will integratethe country into one single market by ensuring a free flow ofgoods and services across the country, Jaitley said, addingthat in order to enable this, we should have a uniform taxrate throughout the country. The GST will ensure that taxation rates are moderate,which in turn will bring down the cost of doing business,thereby bringing down the cost for end consumers. "You have to have one person being assessed once and notby different tax authorities in different states. This makesdoing business easier," he said. He also said that a large section of the people, who fileincome tax return don’t actually pay the taxes. Claiming that barring Dubai and Singapore, our tax ratesare now becoming more reasonable, he said for indirect taxrates to come down further, there is a need to increase itsbase and to achieve that "everyone should pay their taxes". Stating that GST implementation was his immediatechallenge, the minister said the next challenge will bestrengthening the banks. "The government is working on strengthening the publicsector banks and we are determined to do it," he said. Earlier this month, Parliament passed the much-delayed GSTBill and the Assemblies of Assam and Bihar also did the same.The Bill needs to be passed at least by 17 more states withtwo-thirds majority for the Bill to get constitutionalvalidity. The peak GST rate will be finalised by the proposed GSTcouncil comprising the Union Finance Minister and his statecounterparts, even as the chief economic advisor has suggestedan 18 per cent peak rate. PTI HV BEN NPABK