<div><strong>By Haider Ali Khan</strong></div><div> </div><div>Cautioning that era of tax avoidance is over, CBDT chairperson Anita Kapur on Thursday (08 October) said that action would be taken against those who try to organise businesses with a view to minimise liability. </div><div> </div><div>Addressing CII's global tax summit, Kapur also said that the CBDT will focus on greater facilitation of the taxpayer and simplification of tax laws to alleviate confusion and clarify interpretation.</div><div> </div><div>"The era of tax avoidance, am not talking about evasion, in the garb of minimising taxes, is over. And I am very sure that people who are still bent upon organising their businesses in a manner that use all kinds of tools to avoid taxes, are going to be outliers in the system," she said. </div><div> </div><div>She highlighted the partnership between government and industry in enabling effective tax collection. Currently, the government is of the view that reduction in tax rates leaves more money in the hands of businesses, which leads to increased economic activity and this in turn leads to increased tax collection.</div><div> </div><div>According to a study, people avoid paying taxes as they believe the tax law is complex and the tax department does not facilitate tax compliance, she said.</div><div> </div><div>As announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget speech, the CBDT is contemplating reduction in the tax rates and removal of exemptions, in order to simplify taxes. She said that too many incentives tend to distort the law and leads to excessive litigation. The government has set up the High Level Committee headed by Dr Ashok Lahiri which invites issues from the industry to be taken up for departmental view.</div><div> </div><div>She said that easier compliance is being facilitated to all taxpaying segments; small and medium enterprises, large Indian corporate as well as multi-nationals. The challenge for facilitating the MNCs is particularly great, as they are used to operating in some of the best tax environments.</div><div> </div><div>V S Sirpurkar, chairman, Authority for Advance Rulings (Income Tax, Customs and Excise and Service Tax), Ministry of Finance, stressed that there is a need to educate the masses to take up tax responsibility and create better infrastructure that would enable faster disposal of cases and a reduction in pendency.</div><div> </div><div>Sunil Kant Munjal, chairman, Hero Corporate Services Limited, reiterated the fact that India has the potential of becoming the largest economy in the world. He welcomed the positive steps taken by the government towards simplification of the tax system.</div>
