The Finance Minister, Mr. P. Chidambaram, said that tax rates have been moderate in the country and that more people are complying with taxation laws.
“I take legitimate pride in being part of the team that moderated taxes since 1991. More people are paying taxes and there is better compliance.
I think if we agree that taxes are prices we pay for civilization, then we should not fear taxes,” Mr. Chidambaram said after releasing Dr V. Gaurishankar’s book titled ‘Escaping the Minotaur’s Labyrinth: The Principles of Taxation’ here on Monday.
Dr Gaurishankar was a principal author of the Income Tax Act 1961. This book has been published by CCH (a Wolters Kluwers business) and marks its entry in the Indian market.
Rate moderation
Mr. Chidambaram said that the balance between Parliament and the judiciary has kept citizens reasonably free from the tyranny of taxes. “If there are any tyranny of taxes, then that tyranny is not because of the taxman or judge. It is because of the peculiar economic philosophy we had adopted.
Once we broke away from that economic philosophy and accepted that creation of wealth is part of legitimate human activity, you find more income has been generated and more taxes are paid and tax rates have moderated,” he said.
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