SME Times News Bureau | 05 Mar, 2015
Pointing to the problematic fiscal deficit situation,
Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha on Wednesday said the government has
little room for tax concessions with India's "very low" tax-to-GDP
ratio.
"Our tax-to-GDP ratio is simply not acceptable. If we want to run a modern
21st century state, and if we want to deliver to our people the public goods
and services that they demand and which is their right, we cannot deliver at
our tax-to-GDP ratio at which we are right now," Sinha said here at an
interaction with the corporate world organised by industry body Ficci.
"Our challenge right now is that we have very little room for tax
concessions," he added.
"Basically as a government we are on backlog. The tax-to-GDP ratio for the
central government is 10 percent and state plus centre is about 15-16
percent," the minister said.
"The OECD average is 35 percent. Brazil, Indonesia, Kenya, Nepal, each of
these countries have a tax-to-GDP ratio higher than India and then we as a
society are thinking of tax concessions", he added.
The NDA government has also inherited a fiscal deficit of 4.7 percent from the
previous UPA government, Sinha said.