Search for tax evasion

India needs to expand its tax base

Government finances this year have benefitted from a higher than expected revenue collection. While the third wave of the pandemic and associated disruption in economic activity would have an impact, the broad trend in tax collection is widely expected to continue this year. As the latest numbers show, the Central government’s fiscal deficit at the end of November was at 46.2 per cent of the Budget estimates. The comparable number in 2019-20 was 114.8 per cent. However, better than expected revenue collection has not affected the enthusiasm of the income tax department to look for undisclosed income. It has conducted