Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has asked taxmen to be "humane" when dealing with taxpayers, as he felt that being considerate and treating people with respect helps in improving tax collections.

"... (Mukherjee) has asked Indian Revenue Service officials to consider tax payers as important stakeholders in nation building and to administer taxes with a human approach," an official statement said on Thursday.

The Finance Minister was addressing the 63rd batch of IRS trainees last evening, it said. "Mukherjee pointed out that the shift in policy whereby taxpayers are not seen as adversaries has resulted in a significant growth in tax collection during the past decade," the statement said.

He asked the trainee officers to imbibe the approach in their daily working. Direct taxes collection has increased by 10 times during the past decade. Mukherjee also pointed out that the share of direct taxes is now more than 55 per cent.

He reminded the officials that it was due to increased tax buoyancy and collection efforts of Revenue departments that the government was able to waive off the loans to farmers amounting to Rs 71,000 crore.