Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi on Wednesday expressed her disappointment at the budget saying that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman didn’t have much to offer in terms of creating economic opportunities for women and youth. The expectations from the Budget were high because of the economic survey indicated recovery from covid impact, she said.
“It was a very disappointing budget. There were a lot of expectations from the government considering the economic survey showed that we have recovered from covid impact. We expected that there will be more done for social spending, there would be more done for women and youth given that the President spoke at length about Nari Shakti. We all are disappointed because nothing substantial was announced, nothing much on bringing youth and women to the economic growth story of India. Nothing on jobs, nothing on how they will tackle inflation, nothing on how they will tackle the global scenario when everybody is heading towards recession,” she said speaking to The New Indian.
She said that tax exemption was overdue as nothing had been done for the tax payer for a long time, “The 5-7 lakh tax exemption was long overdue and its a welcome move. Over the years nothing was done for the taxpayers. It used tbe 0-5 lakh, no one had to even file the returns. There was no requirement for even tax compliance. You brought people from 3-5 lakh also under the tax slab. Even if they are not paying any tax considering exemption in the new regime, they would have to follow the compliance of filing tax returns. This could have been done to show more people are filing ITR,” she added.
Union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, presented the last full-fledged budget of the second term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government.
Sitharaman called it the “first Budget of Amrit Kaal” — the 25-year period culminating in the centenary of India’s independence – and said that India has grown from the 10th to 5th largest economy in the world and per capita income has more than doubled.
In a big push for income tax relief ahead of the general elections next year, the government has reworked the income tax slabs in the new tax regime.
The new tax rates are:
– 0 to ₹3 lakhs – Nil
– ₹3 to 6 lakhs – 5%
– ₹6 to 9 Lakhs – 10%
– ₹9 to 12 Lakhs – 15%
– ₹12 to 15 Lakhs – 20%
– Above 15 Lakhs – 30%
Income tax rebates for individuals has been increased from ₹5 lakhs to ₹7 lakhs. Sitharaman said there will be no tax on income of up to ₹7 lacks a year. The average processing time for income tax returns was reduced from 93 days to 16 days.