As the nation is moving towards formalisation, the tax base and revenues are also increasing, says Piyush Goyal
Interim Budget 2019: Finance Minister Piyush Goyal expressed confidence that the Narendra Modi government would return to power in the upcoming general elections, and that it might look at tax relaxations for individuals earning more than Rs 5 lakh annually in the full Budget for 2019-20. Edited excerpts from Goyal’s post-Budget press conference: You said that in the main Budget, you would further look at the income tax rate slabs.
I hope that the next government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will look at other tax proposals in the main Budget. That would be the job of the finance minister then. I have been constrained by the nature of interim Budget. However, there are many things that could not have waited till the final Budget, particularly relief for small taxpayers, which I have passed on. The rest is for the next FM to decide in July. Anyway, if you see the track record of this government, for five years consistently, we have passed on many benefits to taxpayers. If a person’s taxable income is Rs 8 lakh, would tax benefits be according to the present slabs?
Yes. Keeping the convention of interim Budget in mind, we have not touched the tax slabs, and the existing slabs will continue. For only those with taxable income below Rs 5 lakh, we have announced a measure in the interim Budget.
Do we have a new fiscal road map in place?
A lot of economic growth has not been captured in the GDP numbers that came out earlier. As the nation is moving towards formalisation, the tax base and revenues are also increasing. Probably that has taken some time to reflect in the (GDP) numbers. As the calculation is getting robust and given the new numbers just came out, fiscal consolidation may not change much. When we calculate with the new estimates, we have done better than the original road map.
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