JANUARY 29, 2018

By Ramki Gaddipati, Co-founder and CTO, Zeta

IN the past two decades, we have not seen an increase in various allowances offered to the salaried population in the country. For example, medical expenditures are exempted only to the tune of Rs.15,000 per annum and children education expenses to the tune of Rs.100 per month. These numbers have remained unchanged for the past several years, even though the costs in the country have risen many-fold during the same period. It would be of great benefit for the salaried people if the Union Budget 2018 considers increasing the limit of such employee tax benefits.

Also, in line with the government's vision of promoting digitisation in India, it becomes imperative that it is made easy for people in the lower socio-economic strata to become a part of this revolutionary change. For example, people without a PAN number, still have to rely on paper-based Form-60 to complete the account creation process. So, I would request the government to work out a strategy to manage this digitally.

From an ordinary salaried citizen point of view, I feel that our current tax slabs are not in line with the current inflation. It would be a joyous moment for the lakhs of tax-paying citizens if the Honorable Finance Minister revisits the tax slabs in light of the current inflation rate.