Budget evokes mixed reactions among Delhiites

New Delhi, Feb 2: Union Budget 2017-18 that was presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday evoked mixed reactions from people here.The budget aims to reduce the tax liability for the entry level income tax slab to 5 per cent from 10 per cent and that is certainly the most talked about announcement among the people. "My concern is the tax slab, my money budget and my household. For the first time in my life I have seen the taxes being reduced. It is a relief. Thumbs up to the budget," a 33-year-old TCS employee told IANS.Ruchika Arora, a 42-year-old housewife expressed excitement over the decision, saying, "This whole thing about bringing down the taxes is going to be beneficial for middle class families like mine. It is nice that they took this big step.""It is a prudent step as it is aligned with the developmental paradigm of our nation," Advocate Sahil Tutreja told to media.According to 27-year-old Divya Sinha, the Union Budget is in the best interest of women as the central government has increased the budget allocation for women and children welfare under various ministries from Rs 1.56 lakh crore to Rs 1.84 lakh crore. "Income tax reforms are fine. There is some relief for the salaried people but extremely beneficial," said Sinha, who is a civil services aspirant. "There is a huge increase in the proposed expenditure for agriculture but then this is the BJP government. It never has much to offer to middle class. They either make efforts for the most disadvantaged or the focus is pro-development," she said."Nothing for the common man. Personal tax reforms are not significant but there is nothing conspicuous for education. The good part is the insistence of using state of the art technology for agriculture and soil management. Affordable housing infra status is another good news," she explained. For 55-year-old Zohra Ali, the income tax rates for individuals earning around Rs 2.5 lakh should have been reduced to nought."Rs 2.5 lakh is not a very big amount in the present day. I feel that this category of people should have simply been exempted from taxes. That s what we were expecting."According to 22-year-old student Ashna Batra, "The statistics of the people eligible to pay taxes and the people who have purchased cars and gone abroad in a year, are surprising as the difference is huge. It means that tax evasion is a practice in this country and due to this, the burden falls on honest tax payers." She feels that changing the tax bracket and percentage will ensure that people comply with tax rules and regulations. She added, "And installation of Aadhar card swipe machines will ensure inclusion of people from all income brackets. Stand up India scheme floated by government sounds impressive as it encourages women entrepreneurs and people from backward classes."There are many who appeared sceptical and confused about the implementation of the proposed plans."They say that they would double the income of the farmers. I am confused how they would do it. The budget doesn t talk about it," said Shaurya Sharma, an engineer by profession. "There should have been some more announcements on the defence sector. The way it used to be before. There isn t any clarity about the proposed defence expenditure... I like the efforts of the government of bringing more and more people in the taxation system," the 38-year-old said. For communication student Ritika Kumari, everything is appreciable including "tax reforms, increase in infrastructure, transportation, removal of service tax in railways but it all depends on how these things are implemented". Shantanu Misra, 31, who is a banker by profession, said that the budget focuses more on real development than on freebies."The amount allocated to railway development and other infrastructure projects has increased. Not much can be commented on indirect taxes as GST is still to be rolled out," he said.