I wish taxes could be lower, but India needs funds: FM

Bhopal: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday justified the present taxation regime, saying that the country needs resources to meet the challenges facing the nation and also to fund research and development activities.

Sitharaman was addressing the 11th convocation of Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) in Bhopal. While appealing to the scientist community to do more research on the storage of renewable energy, Sitharaman said the world has promised a lot of money towards transitioning from fossil fuel to renewable energy but that money is yet to come.

“But India didn’t wait. The promises given in Paris (Paris Agreement) were fulfilled with our own money. There are times when being the finance minister, it doesn’t give me motivation when I have to answer people about why our taxes are like this? Why can’t we even be lower than this? I wish I can bring it down to almost nil. But India’s challenges are severe and challenges will have to be overcome,” the finance minister said.

She said the government has heavily invested in scientific research.