Indian Economy Not Mature Enough To Handle GAAR: ASSOCHAM

Requesting the BJP government to defer the implementation of general anti-avoidance rules (GAAR) in 2016-17, industry body ASSOCHAM has noted that both Indian economy as well as the tax authorities of the country is not mature enough to handle a sophisticated instrument.

“If GAAR is introduced at this stage, it will only act as a handle for more harassment of taxpayers, thus making the tax administration even less conducive and more adversarial,” said DS Rawat, general secretary of the chamber.

He further added that the chamber has also requested the centre to delay the introduction of Direct Tax Code (DTC) as fresh policies at this time could hurt the stability that the economy has achieved till now.

“The introduction of a fresh law with new concepts and new thoughts in the form of DTC will only unsettle the situation as more time will be spent on understanding it and putting in place the mechanism to administer it. The DTC does not have any revolutionary idea that will either expand tax base to a great extent or help in scaling up revenue collection thus, introducing DTC in near future will entail more cost than benefit,” stated Rawat.

The chamber has also suggested that the government should make Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) 100% tax exempted as CSR activities have been made mandatory and companies incur additional expenses pertaining to their CSR.

“Any expenditure incurred by a company relating to CSR referred to in Section 135 of the Companies Act 2013 is not deemed to be expenditure incurred for business and thus, is not allowed as deduction,”

The chamber has also made recommendations to the government pertaining to minimum alternate tax (MAT) and dividend distribution tax (DDT) by players operating in the special economic zones (SEZs), tax deduction at source (TDS) among others.