BUDGET: Last few years' reforms simplified taxation, says Sitharaman

Informist, Thursday, Feb 1, 2024

--Taken steps on customs to facilitate international trade

--Import release time came down in last 4 years on custom reforms

--Assure taxpayers their contribution used on development, welfare

--Focus has been to improve taxpayer services in last 5 years

--Tax return filing simpler on updated tax return norms

--Average processing time of tax returns 10 days from 93 days FY14

NEW DELHI – The measures and reforms undertaken by the government in the past few years have simplified the taxation system, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in Parliament today while presenting the Interim Budget for 2024-25 (Apr-Mar).

"Over the last 10 years, direct tax collections have more than trebled and the (number of) return filers swelled to 2.4 times," Sitharaman said. "I would like to assure the taxpayers that their contributions have been used wisely for the development of the country."

The process of filing tax returns has become simpler since the introduction of updated income tax returns, pre-filling of tax returns, and a new Form 26AS, the minister said. The government introduced these reforms in 2022, 2021, and 2020, respectively.

"Average processing time of returns has been reduced from 93 days in the year 2013-14 to a mere 10 days this year," Sitharaman said.

On the indirect tax front, the government has introduced several reforms in customs to facilitate international trade, she said. "As a result, the import release time declined by 47% to 71 hours at inland container depots, by 28% to 44 hours at air cargo complexes, and by 27% to 85 hours at seaports over the last four years since 2019," she said.

The customs reforms are expected to support trade amidst the slowdown in global demand. In Apr-Dec, India's merchandise exports and imports were down 5.7% and 7.9%, respectively, from a year ago. End

US$1 = 82.97 rupees

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

Reported by Krity Ambey

Edited by Rajeev Pai

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