Mr Subramanian Swamy, Member of Parliament and a senior BJP member urged and claimed to abolish income tax in next three years of his term as a party representative. He also stressed on the insufficient and highly expensive credit availability to MSMEs at present interest rates, during an interactive session at Indian Merchant’s Chamber.
On the economic front, he concretely stated that the MSMEs and small scale enterprises, which give impetus to growth, employment and entrepreneurship need to be supported with lower interest rates.
He explained that currently, in order to keep the inflation levels low, RBI is treading on high interest rates, which is detrimental to India’s long run progress.
“The SME sector needs credit from the domestic banks. They need to get credit at 9 per cent. So, we need a low interest rate economy. That can only happen if we send [RBI Governor] Raghuram Rajan back to Chicago,” he said.
According to Swamy India needs to grow at atleast 10% for 10 years or more to end poverty and unemployment which seems a far cry at the present rate of growth and development .
As far as Income Tax is concerned the grounds to abolish it laid on the fact that Swamy thinks the rich know how to avoid tax and the poor do not fall in the tax bracket. Thus,“It is the middle class, young professionals, salaried employees who pay tax,” he added.
Moreover, he said that the revenue that is generated from income tax collection of around Rs. 2 lakh crore could be sufficed from other sources such as spectrum and coal auction . He explained that if there is no tax burden, there will be more savings by households, which could be channelized into investments.
