Payment of Taxes May Soon Be Declared a Fundamental Duty

Online, October 31, 2012 (Newswire.com) - The Finance Ministry of India has plans underway to make the process of paying Income Tax a fundamental duty for a citizen of India. Under Article 51A of the Constitution, citizens of India are expected to fulfill 11 fundamental duties towards their country. With the addition of another fundamental duty of paying taxes, citizens will have a total of 12 fundamental duties that they would be morally responsible for.

This move is seen as a bid to increase the number of taxpayers in a country which sees only a paltry 3% of its citizens file taxes with the Income Tax Department of India. The country has a total of only 33.73 million taxpayers, who contribute towards the total tax collected, an amount which makes India's 'Tax to GDP Ratio' only 10.1%, a ratio that is among the lowest in the world.

The Fundamental Duties of an Indian citizen, as laid down by the Constitution of India, are not legal obligations but moral ones that lay down some basic rules that true patriots of the nation would be expected to follow. Failure to comply with these fundamental duties does not warrant any legal action but those who realize their responsibilities towards the nation fulfill their duties obligingly.

The move to make the paying of taxes a 12th Fundamental Duty is therefore merely seen as one that will make a citizen more aware of what he should be doing to contribute towards the growth of the country, rather than a requirement that is legally binding.

The question as to whether this move will have any real impact is well answered by Mr. Aashish Ramchand, the Co-Founder of Make My Returns one of India's leading tax-help portals, when he says, "The 11 fundamental duties of an Indian citizen that is laid down by the constitution does not bind him to these duties. These duties are there to be followed but not enforced. I believe most Indians may not even know about these fundamental duties. Bringing tax compliance as a fundamental duty in our constitution would not necessary serve the purpose of increasing tax revenues of the Government. The purpose that it will serve is that it will just remind Indians the responsibility they have towards paying their taxes. It will not compel them. I personally think if some stricter provisions with respect to nonpayment and non compliance of taxes were added to the Income tax act, only then will the majority of our non taxpaying Indian population will start paying taxes. Also, if such provisions were made aware to the general population, then I believe tax compliances will improve drastically."

The bottom line of this entire episode remains that making the paying of taxes a fundamental duty will only put citizens under a moral obligation. To improve the situation on the ground level, changes need to be made to the Income Tax Act. This means that those who do not pay their taxes would be liable to face a more serious action that simply being accused of failing to fulfill their moral duty towards the nation.
The recent past has seen enhanced activity of the Income Tax Department and the Finance Ministry towards increasing awareness of the process of paying taxes. These efforts have even seen the inclusion of a chapter dedicated to the importance of paying taxes in the curriculum of children between 10-18 years of age, in collaboration with the NCERT.

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