Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday asked taxmen to double the taxpayer base (for income-tax) to 10 crores and build a "bridge of trust" (Vishwas ke sethu) with the people so that tax collection targets could be achieved without coercion. Although he didn't specify, the central factor in the country's exceptionally narrow taxpayer base and frequent tax litigation lies in its unpredictable tax regime, brought on by the grey areas in the Income Tax Act of 1961 and the scope for arbitrary interpretation of its provisions. The Justice RV Easwar committee was tasked with simplifying the Act and ironing out areas of frequent dispute in October last year. It has now come up with its first set of recommendations, which can greatly reduce the compliance burden on the small taxpayer. But no decision has yet been taken on implementing the committee's recommendations. If its recommendations on capital gains, TDS, etc are implemented in right earnest, it may help reduce tax ligations, improve compliance, and increase revenue collection.