Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman urged industry stakeholders to move beyond repeated demands for tax rate cuts, exemptions, and concessions. She called for broader, evidence-based recommendations that consider compliance costs, revenue impacts, trade-offs, and unintended consequences.
Speaking at the 8th International Tax Conference on "New Age Taxation," organised by the International Tax Research and Analysis Foundation (ITRAF), she emphasized that tax consultations should be based on "evidence, experience and ideas," examining proposals from multiple perspectives while offering workable alternatives.
As India aims for the Viksit Bharat 2047 goal, Sitharaman stressed the importance of a tax system equipped to address emerging economic challenges and support sustainable fiscal policy.
She also called for stronger, independent, and rigorous tax policy research in India, urging ITRAF to play a larger role in shaping public discourse and policy. Comparing with institutions like the UK’s Institute for Fiscal Studies and the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation in Amsterdam, she said India needs more visible institutions that combine expertise from economists, tax lawyers, and chartered accountants to provide credible independent research.
Sitharaman highlighted the growing need for tax policy to address areas such as artificial intelligence, robotics, the gig economy, global mobility, virtual digital assets, and global capability centres. The government is pursuing structural tax reforms aimed at reducing litigation, rather than just clearing existing disputes, and has rationalised TDS and TCS rules to simplify compliance.
She also referenced international tax measures including treaty renegotiations with Mauritius, Singapore, and Cyprus, the multilateral instrument, country-by-country reporting, automatic exchange of information, and actions against undisclosed foreign income.
On economic growth, Sitharaman noted the 7.8% first-quarter GDP expansion reflected contributions from citizens, industries, and MSMEs, not credit claimed by herself or the government.
