Anti-black money measures expected to double during 5-year term of govt: Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Thursday the number of direct taxpayers is expected to double to 7.6 crores during the five-year term of the present government on account of various initiatives like rationalisation of the tax structure, lowering of rates and anti-black money measures.

"If we look at the functioning of the direct tax department, various factors like strict compliance, rationalisation of the tax structure, lowering the lowest slab, and the result of that has been...we are finding 15-20 per cent gradual increase in the tax collections every year," he said.

He said this while delivering the valedictory address at the 29th Conference of Accountants General here, organised by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).

The number of direct taxpayers was 3.8 crore when the Modi-led government took office in May 2014.

"Four years ago, when we assumed office the total number of people who filed tax returns in India was 3.80 crore. It's already 6.86 crores last year, which is the fourth year. At the end of the fifth year, I do hope it will be something close to 7.6 crore or 7.5 crores, which means that in five years we would have doubled the number of people filing tax returns in India," he added.

He attributed the increase in the number of direct taxpayers to initiatives of the government like anti-black money measures, formalisation of an economy, use of technology, the ability to detect transactions.

These initiatives have also led to increases in tax collections by 15-20 per cent, he added.