BENGALURU: Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Saturday stated that the State is lagging behind in revenue collection owing to the ruling Congress party’s freebies such as free power upto 200 units, Rs 2,000 monthly payment to female head of a family, free travel for women in State run buses, among others.
Addressing the gathering at National Tax Consultants Convention, Bommai recalled his tenure as Finance Minister of the State and stated that when he took charge of the Finance Ministry the situation was in bad condition and the steps initiated by him then helped augment the tax revenue by about 70 percent in about three months.
“The augmentation in the tax revenue collection resulted in the presentation of surplus budget,” he said and wanted simplification of tax rules and observed that some refrain from paying taxes owing to lack of knowledge of rules.
“The more simpler the rules for tax collection, the easier it becomes for the common man to pay taxes,” Bommai observed and said that a country would develop if tax collection increased and observed that often rich people evade paying taxes and making rich people pay taxes is a big challenge.
When Goods and Service Tax (GST) was introduced in the country, Bommai said there was opposition to GST and things have now changed and all have accepted GST resulting in tax collection going up in the country.
The former Chief Minister stressed that the role of tax consultants assumed utmost significance in economic growth of the country and that the tax advisors played a crucial role in making true the dreams of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of making India a 5 trillion dollar economy.
