No boost to consumption: Budget has not put money in hands to spend

The GDP growth rate is only 10.5% but it should have been ideally 12%

R. Subash

Annual income: ₹25 lakh +

No. of members: 5

As far as the middle-income people like me are concerned, there is a mild decrease in the taxes, especially if you opt for new tax regime. If you have income apart from salary, your taxation will go up, as capital gains taxes have been increased, he says.

“The upper middle class and the rich will pay more taxes and that will be used to subsidise the poor. The government is going to launch a lot of programmes that will boost employment and apprenticeship. The bulk of taxes will go to these projects. If a person has only salary and interest income, then taxation goes down. But if you have dividends, then your tax will go up,” Mr. Subash says. 

For the last 3-4 years, the Budget has laid more emphasis on employment generation, according to him. 

“What is disappointing is that there is no boost to consumption. There are two prime movers – consumption and investment. The thrust is on investment but not consumption. To boost consumption put more money in people’s hands or increase their earnings. That is not happening adequately,” he says.

The GDP growth rate is only 10.5% but it should have been ideally 12%. “We were expecting a consumption boost to be delivered and that has not happened. We will experience moderate growth with moderate inflation. For a person like me, that is where the Budget is disappointing. They should have decreased tax rates aggressively to boost consumption and they had the leeway to do it, but they did not. We expected aggressive tax cuts but that has not materialised,” he adds.