Tax rates will remain stable: Chidambaram

Even while terming the 21 per cent growth in tax revenues during 2005-06 as unsustainable, Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram said the government would maintain stable tax rates at a reasonable level.

Speaking at a media conference at the plenary venue here today, Chidambaram expressed confidence that additional resources required to implement the UPA government's flagship programmes such as the Rural Employment Guarantee Programme could be mobilised without touching the tax rates, owing to buoyancy in the country's economy.

The issues of bringing more services into the tax net and allowing FDI in retail business in the coming Budget were still under discussion.

"We are proud of the UPA government's achievements. We gave a new direction to the economy. We changed the politics of governance, cleansed the system of all the traces of communalism and its ideology," the finance minister said.

"I'm happy that economics now dominates the thinking of the people rather than any divisive ideology."

According to him, all indications were pointing towards a 7 per cent-plus growth rate. Denying the view that the Left was impeding growth of the economy, he said, "We continue to pursue liberalisation. But we are also conscious of our social obligations."

Responding to another question on the filing of returns, he said virtual filing of returns would come into effect in the future.

Without elaborating on the new system, he, however, said that virtual filing of returns was possible only when e-filing gains more popularity.