Vidarbha Taxpayers Association (VTA) held its Executive Body Meeting chaired by VTA vice president Hemant Trivedi on upcoming union budget for the year 2023-24 and also sent suggestions by memorandum to Narendra Modi – Prime Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman – Finance Minister and Nitin Gupta – Chairman, Central Board of Direct Taxes, New Delhi.
VTA suggested that threshold limit of income tax should be fixed at Rs. 5 Lakh taking into consideration the inflation and no change in threshold limit in last 4-5 union budgets; likewise the standard deductions for salaried class should also be increased to Rs. 1,00,000/-
The direct tax slabs also require reconsideration, tax slabs from Rs.5-10 Lakhs be 10%, Rs.10-20 be 15% while Rs.20-25 Lakh it should be 25% and above Rs.25 Lakh it should be 30%. Such a tax regime will help in developing tax culture in our country and shall promote true disclosure of income by all.
VTA further suggested that deductions under section 80C should be increased from Rs. 1.5 lakh to Rs. 3 Lakh. Similarly Mediclaim deduction should be increased from Rs.25,000 to Rs.1 Lakh. The Union Government needs to realise that medical expenditure has increased manifolds in the last few years as the hospital ICU charges nowadays exceed five star room tariffs.
VTA requested the Union Government that the practice of imposing cess and surcharge over and above income tax should be discouraged as this becomes a huge headache for taxpayers to calculate and pay. Long Term taxation relief u/s 112A on equity needs to be increased from existing Rs.1 Lakh to Rs.2 Lakh.
Also present in the meeting were Immediate Past President J. P. Sharma, Secretary Tejinder Singh Renu, Treasurer Pawan K. Chopra, Joint Secretary Amarjeet Singh Chawla, Executive Body Members Ashwin Agrawal, Saqib Parekh, Pravin Agrawal, CA Hemant Sarda, Govind Patel, Rajwantpal Singh Tuli, Viru Balani, Shrikant Oke, Harmanjeet Singh Baweja & Narinderpal Singh Osan.
