, Columnist
India Needs to Win Over Taxpayers, Not Tyrannize Them
Modi has missed another opportunity to reform income tax and repair relations with citizens.
India’s tax authorities have an adversarial mindset.
Photographer: Anindito Mukherjee/Bloomberg
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Indians have long had a confrontational relationship with the nation’s tax office, whose adversarial approach has crushed countless small businesses and international investors. This was meant to be the year the government fixed all that and repaired relations with taxpayers.
A few weeks ago, the federal budget cut taxes for many middle-class Indians. It also promised to present a new law that would drastically simplify how income taxes were calculated and paid.