Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday listed demonetisation as one of the successful measures taken by the government to tackle black money as he urged the tax officials to improve India’s tax administration by 2022.
His statement comes two days after the Reserve Bank of India released data which showed 99% of the scrapped high-value notes had come back.This has generated criticism from the opposition but the government has countered listing several positive effects of the move such as widening of the tax base, increase in digitalization, crackdown on black money and stamping out of terror activities.
Addressing top officers at the annual retreat for tax administration, he said that the government is working towards creation of an environment which puts an end to corruption, and instils confidence and trust among the honest taxpayers. Among the other measures that Modi listed were implementation of stringent laws against black money and benami property.
Sources said that Modi told officers that demonetisation had helped move undeclared money from lockers to bank accounts and asked officers to mine data for better results. He also suggested that officers should know those with large assets but who are not paying taxes.
