Letters: Budget expectations

The finance minister has begun the Budget exercise for 2018. Income tax payers have high expectations of relief this time around. For senior citizens increasing the IT exemption limit and also the rebate on premium of health policies needs an upward revision. With the cost of consultation and medicines rising steeply, the domiciliary treatment amount has to be set at a minimum of Rs 50,000 per year.

The exemption limit for the salaried class should be pegged at a higher level as the value of money is going down. Reform in the administration is an urgent need which can be significantly achieved by taking simple and long overdue steps. The need for employees to produce bills for their petrol, newspaper, telephone and medical expenses can be dispensed with. Also, the submission of 15G and 15H forms to banks should be necessitated for interest earned above Rs 1 lakh per annum or completely done away with. The current regulation of filing forms for interest of more than Rs 10,000 creates manual work and piling of physical records.

B G Rao Bengaluru

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