NEW DELHI: Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee told TOI that he is in favour of a moderate tax regime for individuals, giving a strong indication that the government may stick to the lower tax slabs proposed in the original draft of the Direct Tax Code (DTC).
The first draft of the DTC, released in August 2009, had proposed to tax incomes up to Rs 10 lakh per annum at 10%, incomes above Rs 10 lakh and up to Rs 25 lakh at 20% and incomes beyond Rs 25 lakh at 30%.
However, the revised draft released on Tuesday suggested that some tax concessions that were proposed to be done away with might now be retained. This had led to apprehensions that tax slabs too might be changed from the original proposal to make up for potential revenue loss.
However, in an exclusive interview to TOI, the first after the revised DTC was released, the FM said any loss on account of concessions granted in the revised draft of the DTC would be made up through better tax compliance rather than holding them as reasons for raising the tax rates.
