Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said the Government has taken a slew of measures in the last 2-3 years to increase transparency and fairness in the tax administration. He was addressing the second meeting of the parliamentary consultative committee attached to the finance ministry on ‘Initiatives of IT Department’ here.
Jaitley, who also holds the Corporate Affairs portfolio, told Member of Parliaments that the Income Tax Department has taken “various initiatives in the last 2-3 years in order to bring about efficiency, transparency and fairness in tax administration”, said a finance ministry release. Speaking about the initiatives, the finance minister said that a Single Page ITR-1 (SAHAJ) Form was introduced for tax payers having income up to Rs 50 lakhs. The tax rate for individuals having income of Rs 2.5 lakhs to Rs 5 lakhs was reduced from 10 per cent to 5 per cent, which is one among the lowest in the world, he said.
Jaitley further said the concept of 'no scrutiny' was introduced for the first time non-business tax payers having income up to Rs 5 lakh so that ‘more and more people are encouraged’ to join the tax net and file their IT returns and pay the due amount of taxes.
The finance minister said 97 per cent of the income tax returns were filed electronically this year, out of which 92 per cent returns were processed within 60 days and 90 per cent refunds were also issued within 60 days.
