{"id":746,"date":"2016-05-12T12:54:54","date_gmt":"2016-05-12T12:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=746"},"modified":"2016-05-12T12:54:54","modified_gmt":"2016-05-12T12:54:54","slug":"union-budget-2017-india-narendra-modi-arun-jaitley-demonetisation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=746","title":{"rendered":"Modi\u2019s Middle Finger to the Apology Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

T<\/span>his morning, Arun Jaitley presented the Modi government\u2019s\u00a0fourth budget, one that was widely expected to be an \u201capology budget\u201d. After all, didn\u2019t Modi & Co\u00a0owe us an apology for the demon of demonetisation that they\u00a0unleashed on us? For making our 80-year-old grandmothers stand in serpentine queues at ATMs that we would not even stand in for\u00a0at H&M?\n\nSo when \u201cmedia experts\u201d yelled for an apology budget, we joined in. Let\u2019s bring standard deduction back, let\u2019s raise income tax exemption from \u20b9250,000 to \u20b9400,000, let\u2019s slash tax rates across the board, let\u2019s raise the 80C limit from \u20b9150,000 to \u20b9200,000. And hey, while we\u2019re at it, why not do away with income tax entirely?\n\nBut Narendra Modi didn\u2019t apologise this morning. All we got was a plain vanilla budget, which was actually a non-event and definitely a non-apology. None of the above save for a minor balm was offered as a salve for the pain of demonetisation because in truth, a significant tax relief would have made the pain much worse.\n\nThe belief that tax reliefs are a way of relieving the burden of the common man comes from a misplaced sense of understanding of how taxation in India works. In India, only 40 per cent of the organised sector pays taxes anyway.\u00a0 If you add the informal sector\u2019s individuals, enterprises, and firms doing small business in India, the number of returns filed by this category is another 1.81 crore. \u00a0So this is a total of 3.6 crore individuals who file tax returns, of which almost one crore (close to 28 per cent) show income below \u20b92.5 lakh, which in essence means zero tax, and nearly two crore (close to 54 per cent) pay between \u20b92.5 lakh to \u20b95 lakh, which is the lowest bracket of tax, i.e. 10 per cent. So basically 82 per cent of the 3.6 crore either pay zero tax or a maximum of \u20b925,000.\u00a0In a country of more than 121 crore people, only 3 per cent\u00a0pay taxes.\u00a0 Also known as chutiyas.\n<\/p>

So yes, it\u2019s darn right that the PM hasn\u2019t offered an apologist budget and screwed me even more with tax benefits.<\/blockquote>\nWhy? Allow me to explain.\n\nNarendra Modi has understood that the wealth in this country, as demonstrated by demonetisation, is ample. 1.09 crore accounts saw an average deposit size of \u20b95.03 lakh and 1.48 lakh accounts saw an average deposit size of \u20b93.31 crore. With this type of wealth floating around in the country, he knows that we need to get more people into the tax net, and that by increasing tax exemption limits more people would drop out, only making the exchequer poorer, not richer. By cutting just five per cent from the lowest slab the government\u2019s loss of revenue is already expected to be \u20b915,000 crore. By succumbing to any of the \u201cexpert\u201d demands of an apology, this number would be far higher which will be either funded by new taxes or by borrowings, and guess who is left holding the bill?\u00a0 Me! \u00a0Also, otherwise known as the chutiya.\n\nSo yes, it\u2019s darn right that the PM hasn\u2019t offered an apologist budget and screwed me even more with tax benefits. Now sure, there were things that he could have done, maybe by increasing the medical allowance or transport allowance. These would have been well-received and honestly much needed, but until more \u201carmchair Facebook\/Twitter\/Instagram patriots\u201d don\u2019t step up to the tax-paying plate there is nothing that the PM can or will do.\n\nNarendra Modi doesn\u2019t owe us anything. Yes, demonetisation happened; it inconvenienced the hell out of all of us and some poor souls have paid the ultimate price for it, but as history will show, it was a much needed move. Could it have been planned and executed better? Hell yes! Poor planning and a bit of arrogance almost made this genius masterstroke an own goal, but it\u2019s been nearly three months and we\u2019ve survived, haven\u2019t we?\n\nOur PM is a bit of a badass who has delivered the ultimate \u201cfuck you\u201d\u2026 but not to the middle class, or even the rich. It\u2019s to all the \u201cexperts\u201d who expected him to make amends. The only people who should make amends are the people who got us into this mess in the first place.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our PM is a bit of a badass who has delivered the ultimate \u201cfuck you\u201d\u2026 but not to the middle class, or even the rich. It\u2019s to all the \u201cexperts\u201d who expected him to make amends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":747,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[1321,1322,1019,19,180,729,1323],"class_list":["post-746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pov","tag-arun-jaitley","tag-budget-2017","tag-demonetisation","tag-india","tag-modi","tag-narendra-modi","tag-union-budget"],"yoast_head":"\nModi\u2019s Middle Finger to the Apology Budget<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Our PM is a bit of a badass who has delivered the ultimate \u201cfuck you\u201d\u2026 but not to the middle class, or even the rich. 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