People who file tax returns should more than double to 75 million by end of March 2019, as compared to those who filed tax returns as of end March 2014, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Thursday.

Greater formalization of the economy on account of implementation of the goods and services tax, steps taken to curb black money such as demonetization and introduction of a stringent black money Act and greater use of technology have helped in increasing tax collections and expanding the taxpayer base during the tenure of the National Democratic Alliance, he said.

Implementation of penalty provisions for late filing or non-filing of tax returns from this year is also likely to aid compliance and prompt filing of returns.

“Four years ago when we assumed office, the total number of people who filed tax returns in India was 3.8 crore. It was already 6.86 crore last year, which is the fourth year. At the end of the fifth year, I do hope it will be something close to 7.6 crore, which means that in five years we would have doubled the number of people filing tax returns in India,” he said at a conference organized by CAG.

He pointed out that tax collections have improved by 15-20% every year.

Jaitley pointed out that compliance has also improved as the tax slabs have been lowered.