Direct taxes base, which was expected to be broadened, has been left untouched, while Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has given the right direction towards moving to the GST regime, Vijayawada Income Tax Commissioner Ajay Kumar has said.
Delivering a special lecture on Budget Impact on the indirect taxes here on Wednesday, the IT Commissioner, said it was a budget on expected lines and industry welcomed it as rationalisation of taxes was taken forward by reducing the Excise duty on some and increasing Service Tax from 10 to 12 per cent. At the special meeting organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to analyse the impact of budget with focus on indirect taxes, the Commissioner said while there were expectations on the widening of the tax base in direct taxes it did not happen, but there was some relief for the common salaried person with the relief ranging from Rs.2,000 to Rs.24,000 as the slabs were adjusted. Many of the key changes made by the Finance Minister were in line with the recommendations of the industry in the pre-budget exercise and quoted editorial of a newspaper, which had suggested four changes and of them three had been done.CCI Vijayawada Zone Chairman B.S. Koteswara Rao said Railway tariff should have been increased and none had complaint about it, but bowing down to the coalition politics, the UPA had rolled it back.
Associate director of KPMG Tapan Gupta spoke.
