Ludhiana: With Union Budget-2021 set to be presented on Monday, the city residents expect finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to announce measures to benefit all sections of people, as they have not been able to overcome the economic setback dealt by the coronavirus pandemic.
The residents—be it businessmen, self-employed, ex-servicemen or retired government servants—are of the view that under the present circumstances, when people have suffered huge financial losses due to the pandemic and extreme resentment prevails among the farmers, the central government would announce some major reliefs in this budget.
Talking about what the budget could have in store for them, Jagbir Singh Sokhi, president of Sewing Machine Development Club, said, “As coronavirus has wreaked havoc in India across all segments and we have still not been able to come out of its impact, it is very likely that the Centre will announce some major concessions. We may see reduction in GST for some sectors and also reduction in income tax rates. Besides, we also feel that the government will take a slew of measures to support the farmers and the agriculture sector in general to raise the income of the farming class.”
Sokhi further said some other reliefs could be announcements like setting up of a steel regulatory commission in the country to control the rate of the metal, making GST simpler, and bringing petrol and diesel under the GST, thereby enabling the businessmen to claim input credit on fuel.
Banker Gaurav Bansal said, “Service class has suffered a huge setback due to the pandemic, as our savings took a big hit due to rise in expenditures and fall in earnings. We expect that since the government is well aware of all this, the budget may propose raising the income tax exemption limit for non-businessmen and also lowering the rates of income tax for various slabs.”
Inderjit Singh Makkar, a shopkeeper, said, “Under the current situation, it is the need of the hour that measures are taken to raise our incomes, as we haven’t been able to expand our businesses due to erosion of savings. Therefore, reducing the rate of interest on business loans, which are currently at about 12%, should be considered in this budget and it should be set at maximum 6%.”
According to S K Aggarwal, a retired government employee, Monday’s budget is going to be historic and the central government will take unprecedented steps to make people from all walks of life happy, especially the farmers.
“As far as the retired people and senior citizens are concerned, increasing the rates of interest for savings bank accounts and fixed deposits, which are currently extremely low, will be of much help to them. I think the interest rate for fixed deposits should be hiked to at least 9% and for the savings bank deposits, it should be pushed to 6.5%,” Aggarwal said.