Premji wants lower tax rate for better compliance
Bengaluru, July 24: Global software major Wipro's chief Azim Premji on Tuesday said India needs lower income tax rate for better compliance.
"One of the drivers for voluntary compliance is lower tax rates. Lower the tax rate, lower is the incentive toAevade taxes," Premji said at an event by the Income Tax Department of Karnataka-Goa region here to mark 158th Income Tax (IT) Day.
The tax to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio in India is about 16 per cent, including the taxes levied by the state, while in many developed countries, the ratio stands at about 35-40 per cent, Premji said.
"It is important that India's tax to GDP ratio climbs up substantially so that our public, social investments can rise to the level that are required," he added.
Expansion of tax base would help improve the tax to GDP ratio, rather than higher rates of taxes, he asserted, adding that compliance through investigation and vigilance only yield moderate results.
Initiatives like reducing corporate tax rates for small and medium enterprises, rationalisation of the slab rates for individuals help in ensuring compliance among tax payers, he told a gathering of IT Department officials, tax payers and students at the Town Hall in the city centre.
Noting that tax revenue constitutes a huge part of the Union government's budget, Premji said th Acountry's expenditure on social sector, infrastructure and defence are met almost entirely from tax collections.
"Given such high reliance on tax, tax payers play an important role in nation building. Taxes we pay also contribute to the country's moon mission and other programmes," he said.
Technology can also help in increasing the ease of filing taxes and thereby compliance, he said.
"Leveraging on technology, there is a prospect of using Goods and Services Tax (GST) data to validate the IT returns."
With countries like the US taking tax measures like tariffs, outsourcing tax etc., it could trigger trade wars which are detrimental to the growth of developing countries like India, Premji stressed.
"Tax administrations of various countries must collaborate better to prevent shrinking of global trade," he said.
Quoting renowned American politician Benjamin Franklin, Premji said in this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.
"Just as we all aspire to a death that is not painful, tax should be at least made less painful," he said, calling on students and youth to devise taxation systems that are inexpensive, easy to calculate and convenient to pay.
Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax for Karnataka-Goa region B.R. Balakrishnan on the occasion recalled that the India first introduced tax on income in 1860 under British rule.
The tax collected in 1860 was Rs 11 lakh, while in the 2017-18 fiscal, the total tax revenues amounted to Rs 10 lakh crore, he said.
Karnataka and Goa region is the third largest tax contributor in the country, after Mumbai and Delhi.
"Over one lakh crore rupees were collected in the region through taxes for 2017-18, with more than 24 lakh people filing their IT returns," he said.
The IT Department aims to collect over Rs 1.23 lakh crore through tax from across the country for 2018-19 financial year, by adding new return filers, Balakrishnan added.
Through investigations and searches, the Department has been able to detect undisclosed income of over Rs 12,000 crore in the Karnataka-Goa region last year, he added
This financial year, nearly 170 raids have been conducted on various individuals in the region, resulting in detection of undisclosed income of Rs 236 crore, he added.
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SC to hear pleas against laws granting immunity to husbands in marital rape cases
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court has said it listed for Tuesday pleas on the vexed legal question of whether a husband should enjoy immunity from prosecution for the offence of rape if he forces his wife, who is not a minor, to have sex.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice JB Pardiwala said the pleas were already "listed tomorrow" and they would be taken up after some part-heard cases.
The pleas for early listing were mentioned by senior advocate Karuna Nundy, appearing for a litigant in the case.
On September 18, senior advocate Indira Jaising, appearing for one of the litigants, mentioned that the pleas needed to be heard urgently.
The top court on July 16 agreed to list for hearing the pleas on the legal question. The Chief Justice had indicated that the cases might be taken up on July 18.
Under the exception clause of Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), now repealed and replaced by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his wife, the wife not being minor, is not rape.
Even under the new law, Exception 2 to Section 63 (rape) says that "sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under eighteen years of age, is not rape".
The top court on January 16, 2023, sought the Centre's response on a clutch of petitions assailing the IPC provision, which provides protection to a husband against prosecution for forcible sexual intercourse if the wife is an adult.
On May 17, it also issued a notice to the Centre on a similar plea challenging the BNS provision on the issue.
The BNS, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam came into effect from July 1, replacing the IPC, Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the Evidence Act, respectively.
"We have to resolve the matters concerning marital rape," the bench had said.
The Centre earlier said the issue had legal as well as social implications, and the government would like to file its response to the petitions.
One of the pleas is related to a Delhi High Court split verdict of May 11, 2022, on the issue.
The appeal has been filed by a woman, who was one of the petitioners before the high court.
While delivering a split judgment, Justice Rajiv Shakdher and Justice C Hari Shankar concurred on granting the petitioners a certificate of leave to appeal in the Supreme Court as the matter involved substantial questions of law, which required a decision by the top court.
While Justice Shankar, who headed the division bench, favoured striking down the marital rape exception for being "unconstitutional" and said it would be "tragic if a married woman's call for justice is not heard even after 162 years" since the enactment of the IPC, he said the exception under the rape law was not "unconstitutional and was based on an intelligible differentia".
The concept of intelligible differentia distinguishes people or things grouped together from those that are left out.
Another plea has been filed by a man against a Karnataka High Court verdict that paved the way for his prosecution for allegedly raping his wife.
Karnataka High Court had on March 23 last year said exempting a husband from allegations of rape and unnatural sex with his wife ran against Article 14 (equality before law) of the Constitution.
The set of pleas are PILs filed against the IPC provision and have challenged the constitutionality of the marital rape exception under Section 375 (rape) of the IPC on grounds that it discriminates against married women who are sexually assaulted by their husbands.
