Tax payers' tribe grown under NDA rule: Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said the government's revenues were bound to grow as the number of direct taxpayers are expected to increase to 7.6 crore in the five years of NDA government.

He said there has been a 15-20% average increase in direct tax collections in recent years. Jaitley said this while addressing the Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) Accountants General conference here.

He said developments such as black money law and use of technology to monitor transactions have helped increase government's resources.

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

Other factors

"Besides, other factors like the anti-black money measures, the ability to use technology to detect transactions, demonetisation bringing in the compulsion to deposit money in banks have all added to this process," the finance minister said.

He also said that there was 74% increase in the number of indirect tax assesses in the first year of GST.