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The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi doesn't believe in high taxes since it prevents investments that create jobs and drives consumers away, Finance Minister Arul Jaitley said on Friday.
In his reply to the debate on the Finance Bill, 2014 in the Lok Sabha, Jaitley said the direction of the national budget for this fiscal which he presented earlier this month was to generate more economic activity and achieve higher growth.
"Our's is not a high-tax government," the finance minister said. "A high tax government cannot promote business activity, since it will make domestic products non-competitive. High taxes also drive consumers away. Consumers buy products, they don't buy taxes."
He also assured the house that his government would also not resort to indiscriminate levy of taxes with retrospective effect, that creates additional liabilities on businesses and sends wrong signals to investors.
"We want to revive investor sentiment which had been disturbed."
