It refers to the Union Budget for the fiscal-year 2019-20 with so many welcome features for every section of society including farmers, labourers and especially usually-ignored middle-class and salaried people with doubling of exemption-limit for Income Tax directly to rupees five lakhs to the fullest expectation of people. But it would have been better if the budget would have incorporated some important features aimed to simplify long pending reforms.
Till the new Income Tax Act being presently drafted comes into force, various deductions like investments in PPF, NSC etc, Mediclaim, NPS could have been merged into a single one with consolidated deduction of total rupees two lakhs.
Long-pending issue of change in fiscal-year from present April-March of British legacy to systematic calendar-year from January-December to coincide with majority countries of the world could have been announced in the budget.
Voluntary-Tax-Compliance for flooding the exchequer with enormous amount of revenue could be ensured by adding a new head in Income Tax Returns of Income from Undisclosed Sources which could attract highest tax-slab of 30-percent. Those purchasing property with unaccounted cash then would have been auto-detected with sellers showing received unaccounted cash-portion under this head. Tax-system of countries with highest honesty-ranking like Denmark, New-Zealand etc should be studied and implemented for ensuring voluntary tax-compliance.
SUBHASH CHANDRA AGRAWAL