Taxes will be kept moderate: Prime Minister

New Delhi, Nov 17: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today made it clear that the UPA government would keep the tax rates moderate, but ensure ''high levels of compliance'' for generating higher revenues to meet its rising expenditure on education, healthcare and other social sectors.

Having achieved a GDP growth rate of over eight per cent in the three years of UPA rule, the government was now targetting a growth of 9-10 per cent which would also help improve the tax collections, Dr Singh said in his keynote address at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.

The government was determined to create an environment conducive to ''rapid growth'' without tampering with the moderate tax structure, he said.

At the same time, his government was also trying to address the economic disparities between rural and urban areas as the ratio of the income had widened from one is to two at the time of Independence to one is to four at present.

One way of addressing this ''deep concern'' was to offer productive employment for agriculture workers in other sectors and increase the productivity of the farm sector.

Replying to a question on how India could ensure that it did not miss the new wave of industrialisation, he said the WTO should lift the remaining trade barriers and liberalise movement of labour, particularly in the knowledge sector.

UNI