Countdown to budget: ‘Tax relief will be welcome’
Stakeholders weigh in on the areas that need redressal in the Union Budget this week
By : migrator
Update: 2018-01-29 20:07 GMT
Chennai
The government has taken some great steps to boost investment in the infrastructure sector, including the announcement of marquee projects such as the Bharatmala and PM Awas Yojana. Hopefully, the Union Budget 2018, will provide further impetus on developing rural infrastructure.
We expect urban infrastructure, housing, water and sanitation needs to be discussed at the new budget announcement.
The two major areas where we expect the government to drive would be affordable housing and roads and infrastructure. We believe that the Centre is extremely focused on improving the rural infrastructure.
Specific to cement industry, some sort of tax relief would be most welcome, given the fact that cement is among the highest taxed industries right now, at a slab of 28%.
It is expected that Government will consider its legitimate demand of the need to bring down GST slab. Recently, the import duty on pet coke has been increased from 2.5 % to 10%. To boost consumption it will be helpful if the input costs are kept in check.
Voice on the street
DTNext gets talking to citizens and finds what he/she expects from the Union Budget to be presented on February 1
As a salaried employee, I have three expectations from the budget:
- Give tax exemption up to Rs 10 lakhs income. Such a move will increase the consumer spending and drive GDP growth. The direct tax to GDP ratio is only 5.8% in 2017-18 and the government will not have huge impact on revenues since this is a very small percentage of income. This will put more money into the hands of the consumers, which will spur the spending and also support the ‘Make In India’ manufacturing initiative.
- Cutting interest rate gradually over the next 4-6 quarters will help to curb the inflation.
- Increase medical reimbursement limit to Rs 30,000.
—Shanmugha Raja (Raj), Senior Marketing Professional
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