Data crunching: Are we a nation of tax avoiders?

Exemptions ensure India's tax-GDP ratio stays low

The view that Indians don’t pay their fair share of taxes resonates widely in public discourse. So much so that even Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented figures in his recent Budget to buttress the claim of India being a tax non-compliant society. 

But how accurate is this widely held view? Is tax compliance, especially on the personal income tax side, as poor as is being made out to be? The data points in both directions. 

Economists point to the Economic Survey (2015-16) which showed that the average tax-GDP ratio for emerging economies is 21.4 per cent, while that for India