More tax concessions when economy improves: Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday promised more concessions in income tax when the economy improves.

“We do not want a high taxation regime. It was because of the high taxation regime of the previous government that inflation rose.

“I think there was never a Union Budget since 1947, which gave relief up to Rs 50,000 across all three classes of taxpayers — right from lower to the middle and higher income brackets,” he told Rajat Sharma on India TV, according to a release issued by the channel.

The finance minister said had the government more money in its coffers, he would have given more reliefs. “May be, if the government has more money tomorrow, I will raise (reliefs),” he said.

He expected taxpayers to spend more, save more which would lead to higher economic growth and give a boost to the manufacturing sector that had seen a negative growth in the last two years.

Jaitley defended the government’s decision to allow 49 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in defence sector saying he would prefer companies headed by Indians with 49 per cent FDI manufacturing defence equipment in India rather than opting for imports.

“As far as I know, it was Soniaji (Congress President) who had been opposing 49 per cent FDI in defence and was preferring imports of defence equipment,” he said.

Jaitley, who also holds the defence portfolio, pointed out that 26 per cent FDI in defence was permitted during the NDA regime under Atal Bihari Vajpayee. “We are the largest importer of defence equipment in the world. For the last one and half months, most of the foreign leaders who came to meet us were pitching for sale of their equipment,” he said.