Lucknow, Nov 26(FN Agency) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday called for simplification of tax procedures and an end to inspector raj for increasing the central tax revenue. “In UP, we had doubled out tax collection in just 4 and a half years not by enforcement but through educating the people and ending the inspector raj,” he said. In the presence of Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and senior Union finance ministry officials here on Friday on the occassion of the inauguration of the new building of Direct Taxes, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said any harsh measures by the department to collect revenue, forces people to conceal their tax assessment.
“Only by educating people and having faith on them can give us big returns,” he said. Claiming that UP has turned the table in 4 and a half years, the UP CM said against the investment proposals of Rs 4.68 lakh crore promised during the investment summit, already Rs 3 lakh crore have been invested in the state. “During the Corona period, Rs 66,000 crores were invested, which shows our commitment towards the development of the state,” he said. During the occasion the CM also announced that Prime minister Narendra Modi is expected to lay the foundation of the country’s longest Ganga Expressway next month. The government has already purchased 83 per cent of the land needed for the project. He claimed that better law and order and giving facilities to the investors have changed the scenario of the state. “In 2015-16 , UP was ranked 14th in the Ease of Doing Business but now UP was ranked right on top. Besides the GDP of the the state too has also increased”, he added.
UP has done good work in direct tax
Lucknow, Nov 26 (Representative) Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday appreciated the role of Uttar Pradesh in increasing the number of Income Tax Return, which has increased by many folds since 2016. “In 2016, there was just 3.8 lakh IT return filers in UP, which increased to 21.83 lakh registered on March 31, 2021. Among these, 1.63 lakh return were filed by new individuals,” she said. The Union Minister was speaking after inaugurating the new “Pratyaksh Kar” building here. Sitharaman announced that her department has asked all the states and the CBDT to expedite the process of making better infrastructure of the offices of direct and indirect taxes in the country. “I don’t want to speak politics today, but this office inauguration could have been done earlier, if we had a support from the previous government.