Jaitley against high income tax rate to raise revenues

Ahead of the budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the NDA government is not in favour of high taxation, instead it would want to leave more money in the hands of consumers to fuel demand and growth.
The minister also pledged to make the budgetary process more transparent so as to present the real picture of public finances before the people.
"High taxation is not the only route to achieve the target of larger revenue ... We are not going to take this route," Jaitley said while speaking at a function of private news channel CNBC Awaaz.
"We believe that the consumer should have money in hand and by spending that money, production will increase and the country will be benefited," the minister said.

The government raised income tax exemption limit from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh in the last budget, he said.
Jaitley will present his first full fledged budget in the Lok Sabha next month.

He further said that a competitive, non-adversarial and stable tax regime was necessary to attract foreign investors who have various options available to them.
The minister said that public spending would be necessary in the initial phase to revive the economy which had suffered during the UPA regime.
Referring to the spate of functions organised by different states to attract investment, Jaitley said that Prime Minister Modi had successfully brought development agenda on track.

He said the investors will go to states which would offer them better business environment.
Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Trinamool Congress-ruled West Bengal had recently organised various business summits to woo investors.