Taxpayers should not fear harassment, Modi asks officials

PM Modi has assigned a new task for country’s taxmen, that of doubling the taxpayer base to 10 crore from the present 5.43 crore now; however, he has also said that tax department should warn people that "the long arm of the law" will not leave tax defaulters.

However, he made sure that the tax officers be "soft and sober" while approaching taxpayers, keeping in mind that not everyone is a tax evader.

Modi was addressing the inaugural session of the two-day annual conference of tax administrators, when he said that administration should be founded on five pillars, viz. Revenue, Accountability, Probity, Information and Digitisation (RAPID).

He added that Indians inherently are honest, because of which there should be a "bridge of trust" from the taxmen’s end, to achieve tax collection targets without using force.

The conference, titled 'Rajasva Gyan Sangam' (Knowledge Conference on Revenue), saw Modi asking taxmen to "move towards digitisation" so that tax administration can be made efficient and there should be no trust deficit in the process.

Mentioning the name of the conference, he said that people should make sure that the 'Gyan Sangam' can be turned into "Karma Sangam," making people think about converting ideas into action.

He also began to list the shortcomings in the system, saying that a Google search on 'How to pay taxes in India' comes up with 7 crore answers, while on 'How not to pay taxes in India', it gives out 12 crore results.

"People within the country are not dishonest. People have no problem in paying taxes, but somewhere they have some problem. Understand that problem and try to remove it," Modi told the taxmen present at the conference.

He also went on to stress on the need to remove the fear of harassment from the people’s minds, a common scenario in India which is a major reason behind the trust deficit in the country.

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