PNS | Vijayawada
Expressing his disappointment over the country’s aggregated tax collection from all sources which is around 16-18% of GDP, Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy has said that the Central and State tax authorities must work together to not only streamline tax administration across the nation but also to raise tax to GDP ratio to 32-40%.
He was speaking at the TIOL National Taxation Awards 2023 which followed the ‘TIOL Tax Congress 2023’ – India’s pioneering forum for deliberations on hot-button taxation, trade and state finance issues.
Emphasising that taxation is one of the most difficult areas of governance, Buggana who also holds the Commercial Tax, Planning & Skill Development & Training portfolios for the state of Andhra Pradesh said, “Rather than current state of evasion and enforcement of taxes, we should move on to environment wherein the central and state tax administrations work closely to ensure that our tax collection to GDP ratio increases to developed world’s ratio which is around 32 to 40%, from current 16 to 18%.”
He also spoke at length on the reforms that YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government has introduced in the State, including fine-tuning Andhra’s tax administration based on best practices of other states, establishing dashboard-based live monitoring, faceless registration, legal cell within the department, scrutiny automation tool and in-house data analytics unit to ensure robust tax administration which promotes the spirit of willful tax payment.
He was joined by Praveen Mahajan, former Chairperson, CBIC, MC Joshi, former Chairman, CBDT, Deepak Kapoor, former Chairman, PwC and Anup Vikal, CEO of Mapple Highways on the dais for the award ceremony.
Briefing in detail about the award selection process, MC Joshi said, “To ensure transparency in award selection, all possible causes of biases have been removed from the selection process and these awards are a fine example that the taxpayers care about good governance which infuses confidence of paying taxes.”
Welcoming the guests and awardees, Shailendra Kumar, Chairman of TIOL Knowledge Foundation, said, “The aim of this Congress is to groom India’s thought leadership in economic, trade, taxation and finance domains at global-level. To attain such a goal during the Amrit Kaal, the TIOL Tax Congress has gradually expanded the basket of issues to be deliberated upon for possible policy prescriptions for the law-makers and the policy-makers at both the Centre and the States. We intend to provide meaningful inputs to the governments for policy reforms in the coming years.”
