With the Union Budget 2025 merely a few days away, the public is keenly awaiting what changes it will bring to the Indian economy and how they will impact the common man. Expressing their expectations for the upcoming Budget, the Chamber of Trade and Industry (CTI) penned a letter to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
The letter, written by Chairman Brajesh Goyal and President Subhash Khandelwal, called for the government to provide relief to the middle class and small-scale traders in the new Budget. The apex traders’ organisation urged the government to rename Income Tax to ‘Rashtra Nirmaan Sahyog Nidhi’ (Nation Building Cooperation Fund) in the letter. The organisation said this would help boost the sentiment in taxpayers to submit more taxes for the country.
Further, the body called for the government to allocate Rs 1,000 crore towards the redevelopment of the markets and industrial areas of Delhi. It also proposed that the Central Government should constitute a Trade and Industry Development Board for traders and entrepreneurs.
The CTI recommended that senior citizen taxpayers should be given old-age benefits for submitting taxes, such as social security and retirement benefits, in accordance with the norms.
The body called for fixing the tax-free income limit at Rs 10 lakh to help middle-class citizens. Further, the traders urged for lower interest rates on loans for the middle-class and small-scale traders.
The 45-day payment rule and associated penalty in income tax has resulted in many difficulties for several traders and MSME players, the body said. As such, it urged for a recall of this rule.
The CTI demanded that the benefits of the new GST Amnesty scheme should also be available for those traders who submitted their tax, interest rates, and penalties earlier.
“In the last few years, medical insurance premiums have been rising majorly. This has led to a lot of problems for the middle-class sections of the society,” the body observed.
The organisation proposed that the income tax system should have a hybrid system just like the GST regime to allow the occasion of personal hearings. The body further urged the government to rationalise the tax slabs of the GST, arguing that many daily use and essential items today attract tax under the 18 per cent and 28 per cent bracket.
