The idea behind this article is
not to take sides but only to objectively analyse the situation. The first
question or rather an apprehension that comes to mind is that do we even need Tax
reforms? Or is this a mere political stunt? India changed its economic policies in the year 1992, the next logical step would definitely be to change the Tax system
to be in consonance with the said economic policy. Building of Tax capacity is
vital for the state. It is also easily understandable that if the state
simplifies the Tax system it will be highly beneficial for the Tax payer.
However the talk on Tax reform
and fiscal policy is not new, Veteran Tax lawyer and jurist Nani Palkhiwala said
“We legislate first and think afterwards. Complexity is heaped upon complexity and confused becomes more confused”[1]
(http://www.firstpost.com/investing/budget-2012-everything-you-need-to-know-about-personal-taxes-247065.html)
Since we are talking about the Tax
system in general therefore it is also interesting to note that even though we
have an Income Tax Act that is
amended every year by means of the Financial Act (Budget) and we are now coming up
with the Direct Tax Code (DTC). In 2009 while proposing the DTC in the Budget
speech, the then Finance Minister and now the Hon’ble President of India Pranab
Mukherjee stated,
“The objective of the DTC is to build a trust based, unbiased and low rates system to promote voluntary compliance with the code which will improve efficiency and equity in Tax system”. However if look at the Vijay kelkar Committee report on “Road map for fiscal consolidation”[2] on page 21 mentions “The Direct Taxes Code Bill, 2010 which intends to revamp the law relating to direct Taxes is likely to result inconsiderable unacceptable losses on a continuing basis. Given the low Tax-GD Pratio and the existing fiscal crisis, there is absolutely no fiscal space for such large revenue loss. Therefore, the Direct Taxes Code Bill, 2010 should be comprehensively reviewed before it is enacted into law for implementation.”[3]
We can therefore easily come to
the conclusion that the Tax codes must be simplified, in order to get rid of
the problem of multiplicity of objectives assigned to Tax codes and multiple Taxes.
Also the Kelkar committee recommends the modernization of the Tax
administration system so as to reduce the transaction cost incurred by the Tax department and
also to minimize the unnecessary harassment suffered by an honest Tax payer.
Having understood the need for
reforms in Tax law we would now try to understand Banking Transaction Tax
(BTT). The idea of having a single Tax throughout the jurisdiction is not new.
A similar idea was mooted in France post World War; Canada, Australia, Brazil and The United States of America have also discussed this idea in the past. The current system
of Tax followed in India is of Anglo-Saxon origin which is not hard to
contemplate as our Income Tax statue is derived from the Colonial Tax Act of 1922.
There are two different schools of thought here- one supports the Anglo-Saxon
method of Tax while the other prefers the BTT.
The current Tax system in India is a declaratory system of Tax i.e. the
assesse declares his taxable income and then the Tax is deducted. The Proposal
that Ramdev (or BJP?) is making is to do away with such declaration along with
the paperwork and nitty-gritties associated with it move to a non-declaratory
system of Tax.
Globalization is an important consideration in understanding the
reasons for proposing to move to such a system of Taxation, as previously
stated that India globalized its economic policy in 1992 but the Tax system
still waits for reforms to take place. All countries have lost their
sovereignty in Tax related matters, the concept of Tax havens and electronic
transfer of currency has further increased problems for the existing Tax system
in India. Payment through or to these Tax havens and countries which do not
have specific bilateral Tax agreement with India have troubled both the assesse
and the assessing authority. (The Vodafone Tax dispute is a prime example)
The Anglo-Saxon system of Tax has
lost its validity in such transactions. Moreover in today’s economy where FDI
is being encouraged in various sectors (and as argued by Baba Ramdev is a prime
source of getting Black money legitimately in the country), taxing this capital
is also a necessary step in the Tax reform process.
Holes in the theory:
The first and easily visible flaw
of implementation of BTT in Indian scenario is non-inclusion of a major section
of the society in the banking system.
To add to that is the lesser use
of proper form of bank instruments such as cheques, drafts debit and credit
cards etc.
Also if we deem to convert all Tax
transaction in electronic form then the bigger problem is that of cyber
security. We have seen networks of premier banks like “The State Bank of India”
and “The Punjab National Bank” down for hours, the most revenue generating
website for the government is the IRCTC which has been ridiculed on several social media platforms for the server speed. We have to accept that we are
still not in a position to protect all the data which includes a citizen’s
financial information, which can very easily be misused, in an electronic
format.
The issue is of transferring the Tax
collection process to Banks, and here we must also keep in mind that all the banks
are not government banks but also include ICICI and HDFC which are private
players, so in effect the Tax collection will be outsourced to the private
players which will lead to loss of sovereignty over Tax collection.
The role of agencies like the
Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Financial Intelligence Unit will increase by
leaps and bounds and so will their infrastructure capability will need to
be augmented as per the needs of the day. The cost benefit analysis with the
Current Tax Department and the then ED and other agencies will not lead to a
drastic change in the current expenditure of the government.
Moreover the implementation of
such a law will include constitutional amendments and abolition of several Taxes
that are being imposed at the moment and consensus between Center and State.
There will be a transition period between the abolishing of these Taxes and
implementation of the new Taxes. This transition period will lead to loss of
revenue and how this loss would be made good to the government.
Now coming to some very simple
questions that will need to be answered when such a Tax is to be imposed.
Consider the scenario where:
- A person gets a salary that is Taxed, now he sends money to his son who is studying in an educational institute by way of bank transfer. This transaction, as per the current IT Act is not an income in the hands of the son. How will the Bank or the BTT framework make such distinction, is an important question that remained unanswered.
- Another interesting question arises in instances of loan, in this case when a person takes a loan of Rs. 100. A Tax of say Rs. 5 is deducted as BTT, so he in effect gets only 95 Rs. But has to pay back 100 Rupees.
- Also when he pays the amount back he will have to pay (95+5+Tax) because this transaction will also be Taxed by the BTT.
- The Tax Slab problem. As per the cannon of Tax law equity must be maintained while levying and collection of Tax. In this system a person earning 5 Lakhs a year, another earning 2 Lakhs and the third earning 5 crore will be Taxed at the same rate. Moreover if a person earning 2 Lakhs does larger number of Bank Transactions he will be subject to larger amount of Tax although he is not earning more. It will be the same money that will be transacted through the bank and be Taxed again and again.
Several such problem may emerge
as per the circumstances that may arise in the future.
Another huge problem will be of Tax
avoidance by means of cash economy. The Idea is simple, if a person wants to
avoid Tax he will forgo the system of bank transactions altogether and rely
completely on cash. The stories of people hiding cash under their beds would be
revived.
Conclusion
The proposition of BTT as it
appears at this time, seems half cooked. Although it is a step in the correct
direction but it has to be thought out in a more precise way. A lot of research has been
done by several institutions to make progress in the process of implementation
of BTT, however the end result seems to be tricky. Some propositions make the Tax
system too complex while other lead to too much generalization and over simplification.
The decision, if taken, at this
point of time will, in my view, be a hasty one. Such a decision can only be
made when we are able to establish a Tax policy that will best suit the
interest of the citizens as well as the Tax authority.
The steps for financial
inclusions must be taken as the first step of BTT implementation and when
successful in this process we should move ahead with a better precise and
conceptually sound BTT.
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