Pranab may dole out tax sops to salaried class, farmers

[1]

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee holds the economic survey 2010-11 report at the parliament in New Delhi

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee is likely to give tax concessions to the salaried class and offer incentives to farmers in his Budget 2011-12 tomorrow to give relief from high prices and keeping an eye on elections in five states.

It is widely expected that the Budget will raise the income tax exemption limit to Rs 1.80 lakh from the current Rs 1.60 lakh per annum. The finance ministry is already committed to raising the exemption limit to Rs 2 lakh per annum in the Direct Taxes Code (DTC) which is to be implemented from April 2012.

Mr Mukherjee may also consider raising the limit for investment in tax-free infrastructure bonds to give a boost to the fund-starved sector.

Investments up to Rs 20,000 in infrastructure bonds enjoy tax exemption now. Experts said with fiscal deficit projected to come down sharply to 4.8 per cent, the finance minister would have some leeway to provide these tax concessions.

The economic survey 2010-11 presented in Parliament projected fiscal deficit at 4.8 per cent, down from the Budget estimate of 5.5 per cent for the current fiscal. With five states - Assam, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala and West Bengal - heading for polls, it is unlikely that Mr Mukherjee would completely roll back the stimulus and come out with harsh measures to increase government revenues and bring down fiscal deficit, experts said.

Mr Mukherjee's third consecutive budget is also expected to increase the credit flow to the farm sector.

On tax rationalisation, Mr Mukherjee had said, "The sustained growth has been possible due to rationalisation of tax structure, improvement in tax administration and persistent efforts of the employees of income tax department."

Inflation has remained above the comfort level for most part of the current fiscal and will be another focus area for Mr Mukherjee.

The overall inflation at 8.23 per cent is higher than the comfort level of the Reserve Bank at 5-6 per cent. Food inflation had also touched at a high of 18.23 per cent in December, but moderated to 11.49 per cent in mid-February.

Industry fears that Mr Mukherjee may roll back some of the stimulus to fight inflation. Moreover, the Survey had also projected the economy is recovering fast and is expected to return to the pre-crisis growth rate of 9 per cent in 2011-12.

Stimulus package provided by the government at the time financial meltdown helped India grew by 6.8 per cent in 2008-09, and by 8 per cent in 2009-10.

The economy grew by 8.9 per cent in the first half of 2010-11. But the tax incentives and higher public expenditure also pushed up the fiscal deficit to 6.3 per cent in 2009-10.

In the Budget 2010-11, Mr Mukherjee had estimated fiscal deficit to be Rs 3,81,408 crore. Even as there could be some decline in government revenue due to higher exemption limits, Mr Mukherjee would pin hopes on increased economic activity with a high growth rate of nine per cent to bring in money to Centre's kitty.