Budget 2019: Rs 5L sop mirage gives way to dismay among taxpayers

KOLKATA: From hurrah in the afternoon to ho-hum in the evening. This is how the excitement graph of Kolkata’s salaried class traversed on Friday when interim finance minister Piyush Goyal presented the Interim Budget in the

Lok Sabha

where he announced several relief measures and exemptions for the tax payers.

Work in several offices in Kolkata paused and people crowded around television sets between 11am and 1pm when Goyal presented the Budget. Employees thumped tables simultaneously with the members of treasury benches in the Lok Sabha as the minister read out one tax relief measure after the other. Office canteens were abuzz with plans to invest the money they will save on tax. Some young executives thought stock market was a better option while others with low-risk appetite felt bonds and fixed deposits were a better alternative.

“He played like Virat Kohli today, hitting all the shots in his armoury. He finished with a strike rate of 100 by providing relief to every constituency,” said Vikas Poddar, a stock broker with Genius Stock Brokering Company on India Exchange Place.

The scenes were similar across offices in the central business district where everybody was keenly waiting to hear some good news in the Budget.

“In the last few years, the salaried class did not have much to cheer about in terms of tax savings. But since this is an election year, we were hopeful the government will give us something to be happy about. It did not disappoint us,” said Akansha Pachisia, an insurance agent with a direct selling company on RN Mukherjee Road.

The announcement to exempt income tax for people earning up to Rs 5 lakh drew maximum cheers not only inside the Lok Sabha but also in offices in the city. But as the fine print of the Budget emerged later in the evening some confusion prevailed over what will be the tax slab for those who earn more than Rs 5 lakh annually.

“I was excited to hear about the tax exemption in the afternoon. But now there is some confusion because I heard that those with income above Rs 5 lakh annually will not be able to avail the relief. I feel this is wrong,” said Joy Ghosh, a senior executive with a private bank.

Ramesh Damani of Damani Insurance was happy to see his employees so excited. “It seems as if they are watching a cricket match where India is trouncing the opponent. The Budget has really brought some cheer to all of us,” said Damani, whose office is located on Shakespeare Sarani.

Conservative investors had a lot to cheer about as the government has raised the tax deducted at source (TDS) threshold on fixed deposits from Rs 10,000 to Rs 40,000. “This is a huge relief for somebody like me as fixed deposit is my main investment tool. Now, I can save more as the tax deducted at source threshold has been increased to Rs 40,000,” said Manoranjan Roy, a senior clerk in Banerjee Associates, an accountancy firm on Kiran Shankar Roy Road.