Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said that direct and indirect tax will surpass Budget estimate of Rs 16.3 lakh crore by March-end.
Arun Jaitley holds Budget consultations with Finance Ministers of all states, UTs to hear their expectations from the budget 2016-17.
“We will end this year with higher revenues both direct and indirect taxes, higher than budgeted. Not only are we going to reach the budget estimates, we will exceed the budget estimates both in direct tax and indirect tax this year,” he told after pre-budget meeting.
He went on to point to revenues of states like Punjab and Haryana to buttress his point that there has not been any drop in tax revenues post November 8 decision of the government to junk 86 per cent of the currency in circulation.
“My assessment is that the larger integration of informal economy with the formal economy that will happen in the following quarter will lead to higher revenues of all. This is the purpose of this exercise,” he said.
West Bengal FM Amit Mitra walked out from meeting
Claiming that there is financial emergency across the country, West Bengal FM Amit Mitra walks out of budget consultations meet on Tuesday. Mitra said “There is financial emergency in the country and budget has become meaningless.” Mitra claimed that his states had seen a 13 per cent drop in tax revenues post demonetization.
Reacting to claim, Jaitley said that the states which are governed well, have earned well”.
On opposition’s demand to postpone budget
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said presenting the Budget is a “constitutional requirement”.
Without naming anyone, Jaitley said “This is the same party that protests against demonetisation; why are they bothered with the Budget.”
On demonetisation
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that various steps taken by the Central Government in recent past to unearth black money will help in curbing corruption and making the Indian economy more cleaner, transparent and efficient.
He said that the world economy is passing through a difficult phase and is quite fragile.
The Finance Minister stated that the multifarious reforms initiated by the Central Government in recent past would be taken forward in the coming months and urged the States to work together for putting India on the path of higher growth.
He added that various suggestions were made by the participating Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Ministers, and Finance Ministers of different States and UTs.
“Many of those suggestions were general in nature and most of them were State specific or policy oriented or both,” he said.
