Number of tax payers can double to 120 mn: Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said the number of incometax (I-T) payers can double to almost 120 million with increased formalisation of the economy.

As many as 68.6 million IT returns have been filed this year and the number is expected to go up to 76 million before the present government completes its fiveyear term, he said.

Thirty eight million people "filed I-T returns in 2014 when the NDA government came to power. There are 250-260 million families here. The country is capable of having a 100-110120 million tax payer base," Jaitley said at the ' Jagran Conclave' here.

India's normal rate of growth is 7.5-8 per cent and the country will continue to grow at this rate, despite some deviation in one or two quarters, he said.

"Oil prices are a drag.... India can continue to grow at the same pace for two decades, but we need mature leadership for that," the minister said.

The Indian economy grew at 6.7 per cent in fiscal year 2017-18. In the April-June and July-September quarters of the current financial year, the GDP expanded by 8.2 per cent and 7.1 per cent, respectively.

Jaitley said India has the capacity to grow at least 5 per cent more than the average growth rate of the rest of the world. Fitch Ratings in its Global Economic Outlook on Thursday forecast global GDP growth at 3.3 per cent for 2018. India, it said, will grow at 7.2 per cent in the current fiscal ending March 2019.