Do it yourself

ले दे के अपने पास फ़क़त इक नज़र तो है , क्यूँ देखें ज़िंदगी को किसी की नज़र से हम — साहिर लुधियानवी Last Thursday, the finance minister presented an interim budget for the fiscal year 2024-25. The budget presentation had two part – (i) rhetorical and (ii) substantive. The first part included a speech about the performance of the governments led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the past 10 years and promises for the next 23 years. The finance minister spoke about how in 2014 their government inherited an economy that was in shambles; and how they have pulled it out from a total mess and put it on the fast track to achieve the status of a developed nation by the year 2047; when we would celebrate 100 years of our independence from the colonial British rule. The finance minister also promised to implement a slew of development schemes over the next five years. She however refrained from listing any specifics or financial details. The second part included (i) the...

It is an annual ritual to seek tax relief, exemptions and incentives from the finance minister before presentation of the annual budget. The expectations of tax favors are particularly stronger in election years, as taxpayers and market participants are led by the belief that the government may be gratuitous to allure voters. There is however no empirical evidence of any correlation between the direct tax regime and government populism. The fact is that the population that is materially affected by direct tax laws is not significant to the election outcome. The recently released Direct Tax Statistics by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) shows that income taxpayers in India may not be a group of interest from a general election view point. For example, consider the following points evident from the said statistics: No. of taxpayers: In AY23 only 8.91crore individuals paid some income tax (including TDS) in India. This is less than 10% of the total eligible voters in India. T...