The Interim Union Budget 2019, the last by the current government, was presented by Piyush Goyal instead of the Finance Minister who is undergoing medical treatment aboard. By now most of us are aware of the big news: full tax rebate up to Rs. 5 lakh annual income, increase in TDS ceiling limit from Rs. 10,000 to 40,000, several announcements for farmers and so on.
People earning up to Rs. 5 lakh per year will not have to pay income tax, said the budget. The previous tax-free limit was expected to be increased, but the fact that it has been doubled, delighted people.
This has become a catch phrase of our times after the success of Uri. Peeple are very happy with the provisions for farmers and the fact that this budget has the highest ever defence budget allocation.
…Who have never paid income tax, who aren’t really affected by this one way or another. Consider how few people in India actually pay income tax – 28.7 million individuals file income tax returns but only about 12.5 million actually pay income tax.
This slender percentage of 1% people of India is currently rejoicing at the increase in the tax-free slab. This is that percentage of the population that is, however, the most vocal on social media.
A lot of people did not really get the implications of the budget; some admit it. The fact is that every single Indian pays tax; indirect if not direct tax. This is something we all should understand: the government always finds ways to tax us.
We have seen more farmer agitations in the past four years than we have in the past 20 years together. So this budget has declared, among other things, a direct cash transfer of Rs. 6000 to farmers. While this was welcomed, it was also pointed out that it works out to abject sum of about Rs. 17 a day.
Many of the tweeple pointed out the populist nature of the budget and the motive behind in: the fact that India goes to the polls for the Loksabha elections in just a few months.
As this tweet remarks, the increase in the exemption limit is something of a gift that the government has given itself. As budget sops go, it costs the government very little, but will buy them a lot of brownie points.
Many commentators thought that the budgetary allocations would have put the opposition's nose out of joint.
Those who support the current regime thought that the opposition would have been amazed by the budget which received such a positive reaction from the people. As such the opposition would currently be licking its wounds.
Critics of the government were however quite vocal in their disapproval. The tweeple were also tweeting with hashtags such as #Jumla_Budget2019 and #JumlaBudget.
The budget sops are all very well, but what does the budget do for our most pressing problem right now – unemployment? A lot of commentators were unimpressed by the budget doles and felt that such populist measures would not create those badly needed jobs.
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