Personal I-T revenue now equals all other direct taxes: That's a problem

Until the 1950s taxes on output contributed more to government revenue than those on incomes of people and businesses. But since then the balance has gradually been reversed

Topics
Taxation | Direct taxes | farm incomes

T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan 

T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan

For most of history, governments all over the world have taxed their citizens in order to meet the expenditure on public goods. These are wars, defence, currency, police, justice and, of course, the salaries of tax collectors. Plus some other things.

Then came populist democracy and governments began to tax in order to finance the creation of quasi-public goods and outright private goods. This led them to tax both businesses and people. In fact, people forget that the income tax as a permanent tax is just about 150 years old. Thus began the competition between income tax — namely, the ...

Dear Reader,


Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.
We, however, have a request.

As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.

Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.

Digital Editor

First Published: Sun, January 31 2021. 09:32 IST
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
.