Taxes should be collected in firm and fair manner: Jaitley

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley with Chairman of the Central Board of Excise and Custom (CBEC), Kaushal Srivastava during the Professional Training of the 66th Batch of IRS (Customs & Central Excise) Probationers in New Delhi on Friday.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said that tax collection should be done in a ‘firm and fair’ manner without giving any discounts or concession.

Mr. Jaitley was speaking at the inauguration of the professional training course for the 66th batch of IRS (customs and central excise) officers here and said, “A taxman’s job is mixed, he has to be firm and he has to be fair. There are no discounts or concession which he is entitled to give.”

“It is your responsibility to see tax laws are implemented strictly. Whatever tax is chargeable is being charged and what is not chargeable is not charged. It is this fine balance which you have to make.”

Amidst the roll-out of the goods and services tax (GST), Mr. Jaitley advised the new IRS officers to adjust to the new tax regime.

“By the time you finish your training, the mode of taxation and its collection would have changed. So therefore you will have to adjust to changed tax regime,” Mr. Jaitley said.

“You have also the IT backbone at your disposal -- whether its customs, central excise and service tax. These are all going to be collected in a converged manner,” he added.

The government plans to roll-out GST by April 1, 2016.