End income-tax for growth, says Subramanian Swamy

Mumbai: BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Thursday pitched for abolition of income-tax to increase savings rate and help economic growth, and also suggested nationalisation of funds stashed in tax havens to retrieve the black money. Finance minister Arun Jaitley did not use this method because he, being a lawyer, was “sensitive” to the rights of those who have kept black money abroad, Dr Swamy said at an event here.

“If I am in the government, I will do it within one week; if I am not in government, I will do it (remove income-tax) wit-hin three years. The only way to encourage people to save more today is by abolishing the income-tax completely,” he said. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi exhorted the tax authorities to double the tax base to 10 crore earlier in the day, Dr Swamy said here the national savings rate has dipped to 33 per cent and needs to be pushed up to at least 40 per cent.

Increase in the savings rate will provide resources for growth and the Rs 2 trillion which will have to be foregone (if the income-tax is abolished) will get more than compensated, the BJP MP said.