<b>Letters:</b>Too little too late?

The Union Budget turned out to be a damp squib, although the government may take shelter under the directive from the Election Commission for not including any significant reliefs.
 
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in his introduction to the Budget, classified it broadly into 10 parts, direct taxes being one of them. In this respect, he mentioned “honouring the honest”. But nothing of that sort was available in the details of direct taxes. On the contrary, no relief was given to the salaried class with annual income above Rs 10 lakh.
 
No concrete concessions were provided to promote digital banking except the removal of surcharge on ticket booking through IRCTC. I had expected, in tune with restrictions on cash withdrawals after demonetisation, a tax on cash withdrawals above a certain limit. Instead, Jaitley prohibited cash transactions above Rs 3 lakh, which is a huge amount. How he plans to ensure this is not spelt out.

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