There is a need for a holistic new Tax Code with a focus on lower rates, widening base, improved collections and compliance for a Vikshit Bharat, experts said ahead of Budget. A new philosophy of keeping it FLAT, with Fewer and lower tax rates, Litigation reduction, an All-inclusive wider tax base, and Tax collection without withholding it, is urgently needed to increase net tax revenues while energising the economy and realising the vision of a Vikshit Bharat by 2047, they said. Budget 2025-26 is expected to be tabled in Parliament on February 1. "It is certainly not a good situation that we have so many tax rates under GST. Ideally, GST should be one tax rate, but in our country, it is not possible to have one tax rate," former chairman Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs P C Jha said. Three tax slabs can be considered (5 per cent, 16 per cent and 28 per cent) and 12 per cent and 18 per cent can be merged into a single rate of 16 per cent, he said while participating in a