BENGALURU: Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy on Sunday called for abolition of income tax (I-T) to revive the Indian economy by motivating the middle class to increase savings.
“The challenge for the country’s economy is increasing the rate of savings by its domestic sector, especially the middle class, which stands at 82 per cent of the country’s total savings. There is a dire need for us to increase this through measures such as abolition of IT,” he said, while delivering a talk on “Indian economy and its present scenario,” at a conference organised by the Bengaluru branch of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India here.
Pointing out that presently the country was getting revenue of about Rs. 2 lakh crore from I-T, he said it was not a huge sum compared to the fact that the country missed out about Rs. 1.76 lakh crore from 2G spectrum allocation and it could have got Rs. 11 lakh crore if the coal blocks had been allocated.
The loss from the I-T could easily be made up by bringing back Rs. 120 lakh crore of black money illegally stashed away in foreign banks by Indians, he maintained.
Dr. Swamy hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for seeking global cooperation in getting back the black money from foreign banks.
