https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tli1IzXRrSYUnion Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday presented the Union Budget for 2023-24 (Apr-Mar) in the Lok Sabha. Team FPJ spoke to industry experts from various fields. To gauge the reaction in the field of finance sector(trade union org) we spoke to N Shankar, General Secretary, All India Union Bank Staff Association (AIBEA). Here's what he had to say.
The Budget presented by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has failed to meet the expectations of the salaried class. Although the Income Tax rebate limit has been raised to Rs7 lakh in the new tax regime from Rs5 lakh, it will offer little help to the salaried class as this is not actually going to put more money in their hands.
Salaried class should have been given more
On one hand, the government has been saying that the economy is yet to pick up the pace and the business sector is yet to reach the pre-Covid stage, then how has the government recorded the highest GST collection during this time? This means that the common man, who is already burdened with heavy taxes, is continuing to pay taxes even now.
There are crores of people working in the organised sector, however, they are not given dearness allowance or any other allowances. Several people lost jobs during the Covid-19 pandemic and hence took up other jobs at low salaries. Their salaries have not increased so reducing some surcharge is not going to help them.
Also, the money value has eroded thereby eroding the purchasing power. Today if a man has to maintain a family of four persons, his minimum income has to be Rs70,000-80,000 to live a decent life under the given circumstances and inflation. The I-T rebate proposed has not taken care of this. For the economy to grow, people should have spending power.
Some years back, there was a supply chain deficiency. The government has taken care of that but today people don't have purchasing power.
What does a common man want?
A common man just wants to get a good job and live a decent life, despite the inflation. The budget has not envisaged this. It should have been more fine-tuned to help the salaried class.
India is a young country. It has a demographic advantage where the majority of the population is of middle age. This advantage is going to last for another 5-10 years. The government should have seized this opportunity and worked towards creating more quality-oriented jobs. The existing education system will not help youth either get quality-oriented jobs or create them on a large scale.
More emphasis has been laid on digitization, startups and agricultural startups. This alone is not going to develop India.
The Indian corporates have shown a strong balance sheet. Then there was a possibility to tax the rich and corporates thereby easing the tax burden of the salaried class.
As told to Urvi Mahajani
