Poor Individuals Who Pay Tax Without A Grumble, Are Just Left Where They Were
By D N Singh
What went wrong with the individuals who pay tax? It is just the other side of the happy to be about for the people who honestly pay tax falling within the minimum bracket. No taxes for the year 2022-23 was the only respite.
But racing against all odds and specially so post the crippling lashes from the pandemic, it was expected that the FM shall air some relief for the individual tax payers who earn between Rs2.5 to Rs 5 lakhs pay 10% and the graph keep creeping up to 20%, and 30% who earn 5-10 lakhs and 30% above that respectively.
The only respite was about the filing time limits. But that does not take away the pain and additional burden those would blight the present situations.
Be it the fuel price or the Atta, Dal and edible oil prices, the budget failed to focus on these ground realities.
Plus, lets lend a look at the other aspects of the lives that a common man lives through. GST which has been extolled as an epoch-making revenue inlet, has spared the common man’s throbbing nerve that is medicine and treatments. The lifesaving medicines are also charged at 28% GST and the treatments in private hospitals have breached all the limits of affordability. Just unaffordable.
In nut shell the individual tax payers falling within the minimum earning class have been left to sulk in the earlier gloom. The budget is silent on them.
