Suresh Singh Chauhan, a businessman from Lucknow, says the taxation structure needs to be given a second thought to help small businessmen. His views:
In this Union Budget, the government has tried to paint a rosy picture to the tax-paying population i.e. the middle and the upper middle class by bringing those under the ₹5 lakh slot along with the ₹3 Lakh slab. This is merely dangling a carrot in front of the already burdened class and, in a way, will further drain its earning. Ideally, if the government wanted to reward the taxpayer, it should not have at all disturbed the lower limit and created more slots between the existing tax slabs.
Such a move would not only have increased the revenue of the government but also encouraged the earning class to honestly pay taxes as they could have had more slab options. For the business class too, the budget provisions are putting an extra burden. For example, in my business of furnishings and modular kitchen, I am now supposed to pay a tax of 30 per cent if my establishment generates a business of ₹30 lakh. In addition to this, I am also liable to file my Income Tax Return on my profits and that too will be attracting taxes because of the Income Tax slab! The government should have given a thought on this double taxation but alas!
Similarly, the government increased the STCG (short-term capital gains tax) and the LTCG (long-term capital gains tax) by 5 per cent at the existing 15 per cent. As far as I remember, the government, while introducing the Security Transaction Tax (STT) claimed that it was introduced to eliminate STCG and LTCG. But surprisingly, both have increased without a genuine reason.
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Another aspect that the government missed was the provisions of taxations on imports. Whatever minimum ‘corrections’ that have been made in the imports structure will definitely increase the prices of goods in the furnishing and modular home designing sector by five to six per cent. Our trade is at present covered under the GST and duty and what I would suggest is that the government should have followed a ‘One Country One Tax’ structure that will help India prosper in each and every aspect.
There should have been more incentives and relaxations on in house manufacturing so as to give its own idea of ‘Make In India’ a push. If the government opens up its market and offers more lucrative incentives for manufacturing in India, I can bet that we can easily break the monopoly of China in not more than a decade.
However, there are also a majority of decisions that could well be praised like the credit guarantee scheme for the MSMEs, abolition of the Angle Tax, allocations for affordable housing schemes, rural development for upgradation of rural infrastructure, health care, etc.
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As told to Rajat Rai