FM hints at income tax collection boost from GST implementation
The Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said that the recently introduced Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime will have an impact on direct taxes too, indicating that collections of direct taxes could swell once GST gets implemented in full force in coming days.
"The impact of GST will not only be on indirect taxes, but on direct taxes also. The possibility of detection of escaped income is high as GST ushers in transparency", Jaitley said after releasing a Wolters Kluwer book on income tax here.
Jaitley highlighted that the extent of compliance would get clearer when the GST implementation gets into the sphere of "matching of Bills" for input tax credit purposes.
"It will pay you (taxpayers) to be honest", Jaitley added.
Jaitley also underscored the need to reduce the quantum of cash in the economy. He said that the demonetisation exercise undertaken in November last year had helped increase the income tax base of the country.