While the corporates are quite euphoric over what Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has bestowed upon them, the critics call it a "thanksgiving" or a "payback" Budget for the generosity shown by the very corporates towards the Bharatiya Janata Party's high-pitched electioneering in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls. Instead of broadening the direct tax base for revenue mobilisation and to increase the tax-GDP ratio, the finance minister has chosen to forgo over Rs 8,000 crore on income tax benefiting the rich, while without any compunction increased the burden on the consumers across the board by hiking both excise duty and service tax - quite a regressive step. The so-called "tax incentives" given to the business class will cause a loss of revenue to the extent of nearly Rs 5.9 lakh crore, without putting in place any effective mechanism to monitor whether such steps can result in any public good.
At the same time, Jaitley ignored the legitimate expectation of many middle-income group taxpayers for even a symbolic increase in their exemption limit. It seems there are no achche din for them at least till the next Budget.
S K Choudhury Bengaluru
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