Union Budget 2012

[sob]

This happened last year

http://defenceforumindia.com/econom...ome-up-rs-5-lakh-need-not-pay-tax-return.html

No the maximum income tax exemption for Men, who are not Senior Citizen is Rs. 1.80 Lacs. For Ladies the exemption limit is Rs. 2.10 Lakhs.

nrj: this Rs. 5 lakhs limit is for Filing of Tax returns. People with income Tax returns upto Rs. 5 lacs do not need to file IT Returns. for them Form 16 issued by their employer is enough. For people earning more than Rs. 5 lakhs annually they have to mandatory file Income Tax Returns.

 

[thakur_ritesh]

scrap this annual event of presenting a budget, if anything, the GoI should present a target v/s achievement. target be what was committed will be done last year, and what shall be achieved by next year, and achievement be what has been achieved against the set target.

policy decision making shouldnt wait for some important date, it ought to be a daily function of the government, interactions with various interest groups/stake holders shouldnt be once a year phenomenon, but a quarterly event, where a review happens, and subsequent decisions happen as per the progress report.

we need to move past the days of socialism, where yearly budgets, 5 year plans and all such bureaucratic nonsense take precedence.

 

[Mad Indian]

With time, the list of commodities that could come under the category of luxury would normally change, and based on that we can group them from time to time. Besides, fridge and AC are products that people don't buy too often and can very well afford to pay 500 or 1000 extra for that.

What you have mentioned now are all essential commodities... stop speaking Champagne Socialism....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champagne_socialist

 

[Mad Indian]

And i really dont see the point of taxing rich more and taxing poor less....

If some one is poor its his mistake not the Rich's one... Why are we blaming the rich any way...

For working hard??? For earning more than others by working hard??? For spending THEIR money as THEY wish????

Even i can become poor if i flounder all my wealth on Garbage..... Many here dont even blame them for wasting their paltry income on Alcohol....

What we need is a uniform taxing system, which taxes everyone fairly with no bias... This will give more incentive for the rich to invest and earn more leading to more investment and will lead to more jobs....

 

[nrj]

scrap this annual event of presenting a budget, if anything, the GoI should present a target v/s achievement. target be what was committed will be done last year, and what shall be achieved by next year, and achievement be what has been achieved against the set target.

In that case, GOI will end up showing zero performance as almost all of the previous year's targets are going to be missed this time.

 

[Mad Indian]

That will be a good move. I think salaried employees already have exemption till 5 lakhs.

What is good move...???? come on really...??? If the economy grows at 9-10% per annum more people will join the income tax payer threshold.... So we will go on increasing the threshold for the Income tax payers????


Only 5% pay income tax in India... You want to keep the numbers constant eh????

 

[thakur_ritesh]

In that case, GOI will end up showing zero performance as almost all of the previous year's targets are going to be missed this time.

My idea doesnt remain to showcase how inefficient we are, and shame the people running the show. The idea is, think stuff which can be achievable, and deliver. Which means, lets not think too far ahead of ourselves, but initially within limits and once we can start delivering on that consistently, then push ourselves to go beyond what we perceive are our abilities. Like this we could develop a very efficient system in matter of few years.

Today I suspect we dont even for sure know what we really are capable of.

 

[Iamanidiot]

Iam of the idea abolish Personal Income tax and implement GST this will help a lot of Black to convert to white

 

[nrj]

House panel agrees on raising I-T exemption limit

New Delhi: Ahead of the Budget, a key Parliamentary panel scrutinising the Direct Taxes Code (DTC) is likely to recommend raising of income tax exemption limit to Rs 3 lakh and tax breaks on investments to Rs 2.5 lakh.

"There is a consensus among the members that annual tax exemption limit be raised to Rs 3 lakh," sources said after the meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance chaired by senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha.

Raising the tax exemption limit from Rs 1.8 lakh currently, they said, was necessary to provide relief to the people braving the impact of high inflation.

Members also felt that the total tax saving deduction limit, which include investment in provident fund, life insurance, children education and infrastructure bonds, should be raised to Rs 2.5 lakh from Rs 1.2 lakh, sources said.

At present, investments up to Rs 1 lakh in specified instruments are deducted while calculating the tax liability.

In addition, investments up to Rs 20,000 in infrastructure bonds are also exempted from tax.

The Standing Committee on Finance has decided to finalise its report on DTC by March 2, enabling Parliament to consider the ambitious reforms in direct tax regime in the budget session beginning March 12.

"The committee will present its report to Parliament in the third week of March", sources said.

The DTC Bill proposes the tax exemption limit of Rs 2 lakh and also provides for revising the tax slabs for all the three categories.

Currently, income of Rs 1.80-5 lakh attracts 10 percent tax, Rs 5-8 lakh 20 percent and above Rs 8 lakh, 30 percent.

The DTC, which will replace the Income Tax Act, 1961, was referred to the Committee for scrutiny in August 2010.

Yesterday, Congress leaders in their wish-list asked Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to present a "please all" Budget and raise income tax slabs.

PTI

House Panel agrees on raising I-T exemption limit

 

[Blackwater]

Any advantage to NRI's with OCI card in budget 2012????

 

[ejazr]

`Aam Aadmi`s budget wish list: Assocham Survey

http://www.myiris.com/newsCentre/storyShow.php?fileR=20120312074856200&dir=2012/03/12

Raise the exemption limit, reduce tax rates, raise medical reimbursements, more in-hand savings, more employment and investment opportunities are some of the wishes an `Aam Aadmi` expects from the Finance Minster in the forthcoming budget for the financial year 2012-13, reveals the Assocham survey.

The Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) interacted with about 500 employees from different sectors in cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabd, Pune, Chandigarh and Dehradun.

Over 89% of the respondent said that the slab of tax free income has not moved up in line with real inflation. The current basic exemption limit of Rs 1.80 lakhs should be increased to Rs 3 lakh as it will spike up the purchasing power of individuals and stimulate demand.

About half of the respondents were in the age bracket of 25-29 years, followed by 30-39 years (25%), 40-49 years (15%), 50-59 years (10%).

The survey was able to target employees from 18 broad sectors, with maximum share contributed by employees from IT/ITes sector (17%). After IT/ITeS sector, contribution of the survey respondents from financial services is 11%. Employees working in engineering and telecom sector contributed 9% and 8% respectively in the questionnaire.

Nearly 6% of the employees belonged from market research/KPO and media background each. Management, FMCG and Infrastructure sector employees share is 5% each, in the total survey. Respondents from power and real estate sector contributed 4% each. Employees from education and food & beverage provided a share of 3% each. Advertising, manufacturing and textiles employees offered a share of 2% each in the survey results.

Reduce the maximum marginal tax rate; the maximum marginal income tax rate for individuals is 30%, which is on the higher side compared with other countries, said nearly 82% of the respondent.

However, the government could consider a reduction in peak rate from the current 30% to 25%. Further, the peak rate should be attracted at a higher income slab of Rs. 10 lakh (as compared to the current limit of Rs 8 lakh).

About 72% of the respondents said the standard deduction for salaried employees should be revived. Standard deduction is not a personal allowance but was earlier given as a lump sum for meeting employment-related expenses such as on conveyance, books, and so on. Salaried employees should not be deprived of standard deduction from their salaries when professionals/businessmen are eligible for deduction of expenses incurred for earning their income.

With increasing healthcare costs, the existing tax free limit of Rs. 15,000 should be increased to Rs. 50,000, the same also needs to be considered in the Budget, said majority of the respondents.

The transportation allowance granted by the employer to his employee for commuting between the place of work and residence is tax-free to the extent of Rs. 800 per month. This limit was fixed more than a decade ago, and definitely needs to be revised upwards to at least Rs. 3,000 per month, given the rising commuting costs across the country.

Additional benefits related to housing, an individual is permitted deduction for interest on loan for a self-occupied property only up to Rs. 1.50 lakh. This limit has not been revised for a long time while property prices have increased manifold.

The government should consider increasing this limit to Rs three lakh. This would have a twofold impact of not only reducing the taxable income of an individual but also boosting demand for the housing sector, added majority of the respondents.

Over 72% of the respondents said the government should also increase the aggregate deductible limit of Rs 1 lakh to Rs 3 lakh as the same would encourage long term saving by tax payers and enhance availability of low cost funds for the government to meet its long term development needs.

Investments in infrastructure bonds are currently allowed as a deduction up to Rs. 20,000. These bonds have proved to be quite popular and the limit should be increased to Rs. 50,000, considering that government needs massive funds for the development of infrastructure sector and also the lock period be reduced to three years, added the respondents.

 

[ejazr]

Indian FM Mukherjee will be delivering the budget this friday but I thought it would be worthwile to put up my own set of "wishlist items" for the budget. These items are not just year specific but some principles that should be adhered to if the UPA regime wants to adhere to centre-right principles and keep India's growth on track and address security concerns.

And ofcourse this is by no means an exhaustive list.

Spending cuts particularly from inefficient allocation is a must now, particularly with the fiscal deficit reaching uncomfortable levels. Some points to address in this section are:
(1) Dont bring in the food security bill. The UIDAI scheme needs to be strengthened and implemented properly and instead of grains the cash transfer mechanism adopted. Not to mention, streamlining the PDS system. Already food subsidies cost us around $14B and the food bill in its present form will add another $5billion.
(2) CAP and FREEZE MNREGA spending. Its been touted as the largest social welfare program in the world. But until the leaks are plugged, there is no reason to increase the $8 billion in this scheme without fixing leakages and increasing proper utilisation of existing funds.
(3) CAP and CUT subsidies in diesel, fertilisers, LPG and petrol. This also means getting states to cut taxes on petrol to rationalise the burden on consumers when the subsidies are removed.
Fertilisers subsidy in particular has become a monster costing almost $14B which is paid to companies with the farmers not receiving any direct benefit. Corruption and caretlisation of the industry had become rampand and fertilier and diesel deregulation would be two major items that will go a long way in tackling this problem. Again, what it means for the poor is that we move to a cash transfer system where the poor are paid the cash difference and then they get to choose and buy the fertiliser from the market from the brand and company THE CONSUMER wants and not which the govt. has blessed.


Revenue
(1) Implement in the DTC and GST reforms ASAP. All parties should realize that playing politics over this important piece of legislation is foolish and the NDA in particular should at least in this context do something for the best interests of the country and pass these into law. Instead of thinking that NDA will bring it when they come in power, they should realise that when these run for 2+ years they will get a govt. with full coffers which they can spend on their projects once they come into power.
(2) Address the revenue forgone section of the finances. Each year, in the budget, the revenue forgone is the section where taxes and duties that GoI should have got have been foregone as some sort of incentive or tax break. Last year it reached to around $102 Billion. That is more than twice the upper estimate of the 2G scam of $40billion, and even that was over 6 years!!
This is simply unacceptable and should be rationalized. Some items like tax breaks to corporates (IPL for example) and breaks on excise duty on jewellry and machinery should be tackled. It might be feasible to REDUCE the duties but there is no justification of bringing it down to zero. Espicially since all these breaks directly help only the extremely wealthy. Other breaks like personal income tax concessions to women or elderly don't need to be touched and besides they make up less than 10% of this monster hole in the govt. finances.

(3) Increasing taxes would not be the right way to increase revenue, although taxes on the really rich should see a slight increase. This could be in the form of a marginal increase in the wealth tax


Spending priorities
(1) Internal security deserves a greater boost in spending than even our defense budget. The defense budget can stay frozen at last year levels as the ministry still needs to speed up its procurement process and they never use up their entire budget anyways. Besides, GoI should take a serious look at the upcoming CAG report on the Army finances which is sure to be quite revealing. It should streamline processes so that corruption is reduced and the allocated money is used more efficiently.
What I would recommend is a bold plan to improve our state policing. A 100% increase in salaries of all police personnel as well as a 100% increase in the number of staff. The cost of this project should be borne with a 50-50 split between state and center and 75-25 for J&K and NE. The central payments should include incentives like police reforms implementation which includes things like police complaints cell, hiring of new police officials from the local area to increase equitable representation in police forces. Separate investigative and beat police departments. Separate dedicated riot squads for metro areas. Cyber police sections in each state. And ofcourse NIA/ATS/NCTC co-ordinaters that would work on terrorism issues.
This will certainly be a big cost which will include a huge modernization drive component as well where police personnel will get better weapons, vehicles and choppers as well as training from Human rights issues to forensics and cyber crime. It might not be a bad idea to even mandate states to spend 2% of the SGDP on police as well to keep them well funded.
(2)Infra spending will have to be a PPP model with the govt. offering only a helping hand. This includes not just ports, airports and highways, but power stations including renewable energy sources as well as cyberspace infrastructure
(3) R&D spending in higher education and DRDO
(4) Our social sector spending as a percentage of GDP is among the lowest in the world so there is plenty of scope to increase that, but this can only be done if we cut inefficient spending in the first place. Heath care and primary education would be the first areas that should be focused on. We already have the RTE and there are rumours of a right to health act in the making. But the main principles of using cash transfers instead of indirect subsides should still be followed. The NHRM seems to be working out to be an interesting model and a possible plugging of leakages in this model and spreading them to urban areas would be a good start. Similarly a NREGA counterpart in urban areas that depends NOT on govt. sanctioned work but on the idea of micro-finance would be a better option were the urban poor are provided short term loans to establish businesses and then pay back the loans and very low interest rates and generous time period.

 

[Singh]

INDIA : Budget 2012

Budget day today. Its expected to be lackluster at best.

Union Budget 2012: Pranab begins Budget speech in Parliament



Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee began presentation of his seventh Union Budget in Parliament in the backdrop of challenging macroeconomic and political environment.

It may be Pranab's last attempt to bring economic reforms back on track.

Subsidies have more than doubled to 3% of GDP. They have shrunk the funds available for investment.

The Economic Survey, tabled yesterday by Mukherjee in the Lok Sabha yesterday, projected the economy to grow by about 7.6% in the next fiscal, up from 6.9% estimated in 2011-12.

This year's Economic Survey has added two new Chapters- financing of climate change and India's emergence in the global economy, which analyses the current global slowdown, eurozone crisis and what it means to India.

The 2011-12 Survey has also suggested the government adopt the path of fiscal consolidation to bring down fiscal deficit, besides undertaking a crackdown on corruption.

Market will keenly watch out for Mukherjee comments on the fiscal deficit and how he plans to bring the divestment agenda back on track.
However, markets have very little expectations from this year's Budget. "My own take is that it is still a non event. I still maintain that we are making a big fuss about nothing. There will be a market reaction no question about that because of so much pent up expectation. The Budget is a 200 point Nifty event," CNBC-TV18's Udayan Mukherjee said earlier in the day.

For individuals, Mukherjee now becomes the Finance Minister to have made second highest number of budget speeches.
The maximum number of 10 budgets have been presented by Morarji Desai, while P Chidambaram, Yashwant Sinha, Y B Chavan and C D Deshmukh have presented seven budgets each

Union Budget 2012: Pranab begins Budget speech in Parliament - Moneycontrol.com -

 

[H.A.]

DIRECT TAXES

Enhances income tax exemption limit for individuals to Rs 2 lakh.

BLACK MONEY

Govt is serious in tackling the menace of the black money. Special cells to be set up to track black money, says Pranab.

 

[H.A.]

Updates:

Repay loans on time, get sops: FM

3% interest subsidy for farmers: Pranab

Public distribution system to be computerised: Pranab; Probably a beginning towards the implementation of Aadhar card scheme

 

[H.A.]

Package for aviation sector, 49% airline FDI under active consideration: FM

 

[Blackwater]

Any news for NRI??

 

[H.A.]

Govt to give contracts for 8800km national highway roads in 2012/13 against 7300km in 2011/12: Pranab

Yay more driving....that is if implemented..

 

[H.A.]

20% less tax on buying and selling shares

 

[Blackwater]

Maachis sasti hogi