This year after the pandemic everyone was keen to know the budget 2021 because many expected there would be an excess tax levied from the people in the name of COVID tax or pandemic tax. But our finance minister gave a relaxation by not introducing any extra tax on this budget 2021.
Looking forward, there is no change in the tax rates and tax slabs. People can still choose to file their income tax in a new regime or old regime with all deductions.
Your gold and silver might become a little cheaper this year because of a reduction in the import duty from 12.5% to 7.5%. There is a rise in import duty for electrical & electronics, so your appliances and smartphones will get a little costlier.
Affordable housing is still on the cards , first time home buyers can obtain 1.5 lakhs deduction over existing 2 lakhs standard deductions.
Senior citizens aged 75 and above who have only pension income and interest income from the bank are exempted from filing ITR. Senior citizens will have less paperwork from now, unless they have mutual fund investments and other incomes.
There is relaxation for the common people from the harassment of taxmen in the budget 2021. The tax department can only reopen files before 3 years if there any discrepancy in the filing. In case of huge tax evasion of more than 50 lakhs and for undisclosed foreign assets the rules stay the same.
This budget comes with a lot of allocation for the health, infrastructures, and for R&D activities in India. All these are allocations, for the implementation, we should wait and see the reality.
Government is on a selling spree, there are new targets to bring in more funds by disinvestments of PSUs. With the current fiscal deficit standing at 7.5%, it is important we bring in more money. But the selling of PSUs like banks and airlines is not a good move.
Finally, there is nothing for the mangopeople in this budget, it’s like old wine in the new bottle. Hope the allocation for development is done and the economy revives soon.
