GST, demonetisation brought 1.8 million people under tax net: Govt official

An external affairs ministry official said apart from encouraging digital transactions, introduction of the uniform-tax regime under the GST has led to a 50% increase in the number of indirect taxpayers.

India has informed the UN that the Goods and Services Tax reform implemented by it, coupled with the demonetisation of high-value currency notes, has brought 1.8 million more people into the income tax net.

Additional secretary in the ministry of external affairs A Gitesh Sarma, addressing the ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development Follow Up, said, India is currently implementing a wave of reforms.

Sarma said apart from encouraging digital transactions, introduction of the uniform-tax regime under the GST has led to a 50% increase in the number of indirect taxpayers.

“Coupled with demonetisation of high-value currency notes, the GST brought 1.8 million more people into the income tax net,” he said at the forum here yesterday.

He added that India stands firm on its stance on the fundamental principles of the World Trade Organisation , including multilateralism, rule-based consensual decision-making, an independent and credible dispute resolution and appellate process, the centrality of development which underlies the Doha Development Agenda, and special and differential treatment for all developing countries.

He said the global economic recovery is progressing gradually, with improved resilience and emergence of new sources of growth.

“However, there are concerns that a durable recovery may remain constrained by factors such as the persistence of low productivity and debt overhang problems in advanced economies, as well as in some emerging market economies, rising populism and protectionism, and the slow pace of structural reforms,” he said.

Last year, India established the India-UN Development Partnership Fund that supports Southern-owned and led, demand-driven, and transformational sustainable development projects across the developing world, with a focus on Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

“I would like to reiterate that the international community must step up its efforts to fulfil the commitments already undertaken - not as a charity but with full realisation that it will be in our collective interest,” Sarma said.