Simplify whole system of business taxation: NITI Aayog member Arvind Virmani

NITI Aayog member Arvind Virmani has made a case for simplification of the whole system of business taxation as has been done in the case of personal tax, saying faceless assessment may not work in all cases.

Virmani further said that he is hearing from large corporations that faceless assessment sometimes can mean a kind of ignorance because business by itself requires judgments of every expenditure.

"Business taxation is inherently problematic. And sometimes you need to explain it," he told PTI.

Virmani noted that business taxation for business doesn't mean only corporate tax, it also means the business elements of personal taxation.

"So, you can have a faceless assessment; it may work for 80% of cases but it may create more problems for 10%. My solution is, you got to simplify the whole tax system for business taxation," the eminent economist opined.

In recent years, the government has simplified the income tax regime in India.

Virmani also reiterated that signing the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with the European Union, United States, and United Kingdom is very important for India.

Replying to a question on high youth unemployment, he asserted that the workers participation, which is the measure of jobs, has gone up in 2021-22 (agriculture year) from 2017-18 (agriculture year).

"Look at the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data. The wages of the casual workers have gone up by something like 5% a year between 2021-22 (agriculture year) and 2017-18 (agriculture year) period," he said.

Responding to a question on how he would compare the performance of the UPA government's ten years (2004-14) and the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government's nine years, Virmani said on most macroeconomic indicators including inflation, the Modi government has performed better than the previous UPA government.