People across the State are now pinning their hopes on the General Budget 2016-17 after the Railway Budget dashed their hopes.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will present the Budget in the Lok Sabha on Monday (February 29).
“Besides general expectations associated with any budget, people of the State have a bigger reason to look forward to it. We fervently hope for allocation of ‘special incentives’ which are most-needed at this critical juncture to put the fledgling State on the rails. Deprived of Special Status that was promised to us, we have the right to expect at least ‘special incentives’ to tide over the financial crisis,” says M. Rajaiah, Chairman and MD of Vijay Agro Products Pvt. Ltd and Taj Gateway Hotel.
Industrialists are eagerly waiting for reduction in corporate taxes. The fact that not a single new industry has come up in the region barring the ones which were already in the pipeline is a cause for concern for the fraternity. “ Tax holidays and attractive incentives is the only way to attract industrialists. Special funds must be allocated to ensure that the proposed projects in different sectors take off smoothly,” reiterates Mr. Rajaiah.
The salaried class too has a lot of expectations from the Budget. Increase in the personal income-tax exemption limit and a higher deduction limit on home loan interest are among the common ones. Since there was no increase in the basic exemption limit in the last budget, individual tax-payers are keeping their fingers crossed hoping it to happen this time around.
“Considering the increase in cost of living, the current basic exemption limit of 2.5 lakh should be raised to Rs. 3 lakh,” says Chandra Rajendran, a housewife from Ashok Nagar.
“The Modi Government’s ‘Make in India’ endeavour aims at infrastructure development. But the authorities must evolve a mechanism to address the related environmental concerns as well. Thrust should be on eco-friendly projects and incentives could be given to those implementing them. The Government should formulate a coherent policy wherein development and environment conservation goes hand-in-hand,” says P.V. Radhika, a faculty in Chartered Accountancy.
Young entrepreneur Devulapalli Sainath wants proper channelling of funds that are sanctioned for start-ups across the country.
“Under the Centre’s start-up initiative, service-based units do not have many advantages. This should be looked into,” he says.
Revision of low medical allowance, education allowance and hostel allowance are the other areas of concerns.
