India's tax reforms, digital push have increased revenue, cut compliance costs: FM Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's remarks at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in Seville, Spain, where she credits India’s tax reforms and digital push—such as the JAM Trinity (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile)—for boosting revenue and cutting compliance costs, aligning with a 2024 study in the Journal of Public Economics showing digital tax systems can increase tax revenue by up to 15% in developing economies.

India’s tax revenue to GDP ratio rose from 8.2% to 17.1% over the past decade, partly due to reduced leakages in government transfers, a trend supported by a 2023 World Bank report noting that digital infrastructure like India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) processed over 12 billion transactions in 2024, enhancing fiscal transparency.