Common man seeks relief against rising inflation

INDORE: The common man is hoping for a slew of measures in the Union Budget to combat rising inflation and tax relief to leave more room for disposable income in the hands of salaried class.

Raise the deduction limit under Section 80C to more tax exemption on home loan interest payment, making alternative tax regime lucrative to attract more assesses are on the wish list of the common man.

Abhay Sharma, secretary, Tax Practitioners Association Indore said, “The government should announce measures to make the alternative tax regime lucrative so that more taxpayers opt for this regime. At present, assesses who have investments under section 80 C and 80 D are not opting for the alternative tax regime.”

Experts expect the government to increase the basic income tax exemption limit that is currently set at Rs 2.5 lakh per year under both the new and old income tax regimes.

Chartered accountant Kirti Joshi, chairman, Indore Branch of CIRC of ICAI said, “The government should come up with measures to make more room to make tax-saving investments. The deduction limit under section 80C has remained unchanged since 2014-15. This limit should be increased to Rs 5 lakh. There is long-standing demand to increase this deduction limit.”

Experts said the government should focus on making investments more friendly by leaving more disposable income with the salaried class.

Some experts also stressed that the government should extend the time limit to file the revised returns for assesses who require audits of their books to March 31 as against December 31 because such assessments file their returns on October 30. To boost sales of houses, experts suggested the government should extend the timeline to 5 years from the existing 2 years for developers to sell property after receiving the completion certificate.