this story originally appeared in on jun 16 2016new delhi in a rare kind of prime ministerial interaction narendra modi will be addressing indias seniormost taxmen on thursday his audience at rajaswa gyan sangam roughly translated as knowledge conference on revenue will know what most observers of modi sarkar may have failed to spot theres now after twoplus years in government a modi tax doctrine mtd unlike most definitive policy guidelines mtd wasnt born out of white papers and special committees the doctrine took shape out of changes in various tax practices but its a definitive break from the past a big positive change but of course as in any complex system challenges remain et spoke to many key officials in the finance ministry for this report some spoke off the record mtd can be summed up precisely make paying taxes easy that is simplify procedures avoid litigation two make taxmen friendlier that is no coercion no cooking of revenue books third go hell for leather after black money indias infamously hidebound tax administration has responded but taxmen also make the point that they as yet dont have an information system that can track all highvalue transactions and close observers say a good test for the modi tax doctrine will come when rules are framed for hoovering up domestic black money black money rules apart none of these changes in tax practice made headline news but together they represent a new approach and taxmen got notice of this soon after modi assumed office one senior tax official said the new message came direct and in person from modi when he met tax chiefs the pm had told them aapse sab darte hain everyone is scared of you this official said taxmen understood the message the brief had changed from just getting revenue to quickly improving public perception a good example of mtd came in april routine computerised analysis of tax refunds showed a rs 12000crore tax refund the beneficiary was state bank of india earlier this wouldnt have resulted in anything now an inquiry is on aiming to determine whether sbi was coerced into paying high taxes in march so that those numbers could shore up revenues and therefore make deficit figures look better in 201516 both central board of direct taxes cbdt and central board of excise customs cbec are fully briefed on this aspect of mtd senior officials said the tag of tax terrorism applied frequently under united progressive alliance2 had to be shed taxmen were told tax officers have to be accountable that has been the pms key message said revenue secretary hasmukh adhia pms philosophy is people dont mind paying taxes but they are worried about procedures so if you make it easy for them to pay taxes then theres no need to worry about collection people on their own will pay adhia saidease of paying taxes for large taxpayers concrete measures to make life easier includea clarifying after years the difference between