[saket77]

Two things that the middle class needs but won't get:

1. Reduction in GST for health and life insurance.
2. Reduction in LTCG.

I cannot fathom that in a country like India such, high GST is slapped on health and life insurance. On one hand where the Govt itself is unable to provide social security to its citizens; some people try to secure themselves by paying by their own taxed money as premium and they get 18% GST slap.

Also, ordinary people invest for their and children's future by investing for long term mostly through small SIPs. When time comes to harvest the proceeds, it is mostly for medical, housing, cars, education etc where the Govt will anyway put good tax upon. This steep LTCG derails the plans a lot. I agree with STCG but LTCG should be reduced or waived off.

Big ask, I know.

[fordday]

My expectation will be just do not add any more burden. No use of expecting any reduction.

[srini1785]

1. Option of contributing to a Public scheme of my choice as against contribution to central IT and then they funding the schemes based on politics. Lets just cut the red tape. I want some of my tax money going to fund certain infra schemes which in my mind needs more funding. If such an option is given then I would call it a good budget.

2. Abolish Personal IT or bring Farm income above a certain threshold under basic IT.

3. Uniform GST across segments. For the sake of simplicity.

Realistically of course all these are wishful thinking so I don't have any expectations from the budget.

[ringsoftime]

In my view there could be an adjustment in the tax slabs, which will be - adjusted for inflation and per capital income - comparable to the yearly and biannual revision we used to have in the tax slabs, but could still be lesser. This would be part of the strategies to squeeze and then let it loose for a bit and squeeze again.
The current government knows that the mandate it has, is not just the votes it gathered, but much more than that, so expecting any real accountability is futile in my opinion.

On points that discussed above comparing the times to 1970s, I think there are similarities in the governing style in some extents. We do need to think of government as entities capable of being progressive at some areas and Conservative in other. None are what they claim to be. At the farther end, left and right would not seem much different.

As an enthusiast though, I hope some changes to GST for sub 4m rules appear, so that we may get some hot hatches and competitive cars without drastic changes in taxes. I would hope that the 4m-1.2L become more of a converging point and that cars can have slightly longer body or slightly higher capacity, without getting a huge tax change in it.

Ofcourse and not that huge proposed GST on Malayalis' snacks either.

[HIGHWAY_PATROL]

In an year when I haven't claimed any insurance[life, health, motor etc], I would want all those paid premiums for unclaimed policies in that year be considered as money donated to charity [100% non-tax]

[dodge3p]

My Expectations from this year's budget.

Lower the income tax impact of salaries up to 20L pa
Eliminate tax on healthcare and health insurance
Tax agriculture income if profits are more than 50L per year.

[Sensible_Speed]

Tax the damn billionaires. India has some of the most porous regulation to siphon wealth away. The IT Act is an undecipherable mess. The government needs to take a firm stance on its approach to taxation. It cannot appease all. Tax the rich indiscriminately, if you're serious about welfare. Increase government funding for education and healthcare. Privatizing these crucial sectors, which are critical to human resource development is criminal. China's model worked successfully in this regard with good state funding for education and research. Academia in India needs to pick up. It is the only way to progress.

[Piston_head]

Given that the number of taxpayers is quite low, how challenging is it for the government to offer benefits such as free healthcare, education, and toll-free roads to this small number of taxpayers.

Wouldn’t implementing such measures encourage business owners and tax evaders to start paying their taxes?

Anyways taxpayers are seen as “Barking dogs seldom bite.” 😩

[gauravanekar]

Although I empathise with frustrated people here, I would like to point out that cheap labour in Indian cities which we enjoy is largely due to liberal doles for most of the poor.

As V Narayan said, we need further reforms to fuel additional growth rate. I would say start with bureaucratic reforms across the board. We should make a career in bureaucracy less attractive by penalizing corrupt officials when convicted beyond doubt by court of law. Firing from the job should not be ruled out.

This should be followed with Police reforms, Judicial reforms, Most of the frustration of city dwelling tax paying individuals stems from endemic corruption in Municipal corporations of large cities of India. Centre is performing admirably according to me. Nirmala Sitaraman is playing fairly well with the cards which she has been dealt with.

[Asish_VK]

As a salaried tax payer, I don't have any expectations from this budget. Infact I stopped worrying about budget, tax slabs , inflation etc from few years. It just increases the stress, nothing else.
Whatever noise we (salaried tax payers) make, things will happen as already decided.
After every budget day, I just have a casual glance to the news section, take a deep breath and continue my daily grind at work.

[aspire]

The freebies should stop, parties are competing to outdo each other on freebies offered, we as a nation cannot afford it, its the lack of trust on the Indian voter that parties think of such short term measures to ensure their grip on power, I am tired of all this, this needs to stop else we are also headed Venezuela's way.

[somersault]

Originally Posted by saket77

Two things that the middle class needs but won't get:
1. Reduction in GST for health and life insurance.

Why desire reduction in GST for only health and life insurance. Believe it or not, GST takes away the biggest portion from your income. At 18% default rate, close to 1/5 of the price of any standard goods and service is a tax component. This tax is paid by every one in your family, including your retired parents, your young children, irrespective of whether they have income or not, for every purchase, or tuition fees paid by them, including the rent paid in some cases. This tax is also paid by your maid, driver, auto driver etc. and hence they demand higher salary or higher fare from you. This high rate is the biggest reason for the slowness in the economy. Most people would not even understand this impact as there is no direct payment.

Originally Posted by srini1785

3. Uniform GST across segments. For the sake of simplicity.

This something is the need of the hour on priority. Stop giving benefits to khakras, parathas, salted popcorns etc. Stop calling the cars as sin goods and hence tax them to death at 40-50%. Stop differentiating hotel rooms on the base rent. Every product or service creation contributes to the economy and hence the jobs creation by the private sector. With differential taxes for the similar products, government is creating a room for cheating by the manufacturers or service sectors. We need to keep the rate uniform and reasonable so that the law of scale will apply and tax collection will grow.

Have a uniform indirect tax and may I dare say, keep it at 12% GST for all products or 0% for very limited essential products and we will be moving fast on economy.

[saket77]

Originally Posted by somersault

Why desire reduction in GST for only health and life insurance.

Because unlike many other goods and services, this is basic social security product which in many countries the Govt takes care of. A country like India which doesn't provide such security to its tax paying population, should encourage people who buy such products. Adding 18% GST on top of it is absurd.

Originally Posted by somersault

Believe it or not, GST takes away the biggest portion from your income. At 18% default rate, close to 1/5 of the price of any standard goods and service is a tax component. This tax is paid by every one in your family, including your retired parents, your young children, irrespective of whether they have income or not, for every purchase, or tuition fees paid by them, including the rent paid in some cases. This tax is also paid by your maid, driver, auto driver etc. and hence they demand higher salary or higher fare from you. This high rate is the biggest reason for the slowness in the economy. Most people would not even understand this impact as there is no direct payment.

As citizens, we also need to understand that the country and the systems needs money to run. If products aren't taxed, how will these systems work? In fact, GST on all products makes sure that everyone pays taxes unlike income taxes, hence it is not a bad thing actually.

[somersault]

Originally Posted by saket77

As citizens, we also need to understand that the country and the systems needs money to run. If products aren't taxed, how will these systems work? In fact, GST on all products makes sure that everyone pays taxes unlike income taxes which is not a bad thing actually.

Sir, probably you missed my point. I am not suggesting we remove the indirect tax. My suggestion was to tax uniform and reduce the rate at 12% default.

Every economy needs 3 areas of spending to move the needle. a) government spending, b) corporate spending and c) private consumption.
The GDP moves faster and economy grows when the private consumption and corporate spending is greater than the government spending. So this way, government need not shoulder the complete responsibility of all the growth.

We could make the private consumption more by reducing the indirect tax from 18% to 12% default. As the consumption grows, the corporate sectors will start doing more investments. This way more jobs will be created, more income will be generated and government will have more direct and indirect tax to further invest rightly in the infrastructure or defense building.

The key point is - what indirect tax rate is comfortable and provides the right stimulus to economy.

[kushagra452]

Hope the govt. earmarks at least $5 billion for the development of AI models and other deep tech in India in this budget. India is already behind the US and China when it comes to AI. Most of the AI talent in India leaves for greener pastures. The GoI needs to show it's intent on catching up with the US and China by committing at least $5 billion for AI and deep tech development.

Hire the best talent; pay them the best salaries; provide them with all the amenities and comforts; cut the rate tape; insulate them from the babus.

Hoping for the best.

As an honest tax paying citizen I would be happy to contribute towards this mission.