Pre-budget survey: The mood on tax reforms, big business, welfare and more

Ahead of the Union Budget 2024-25, which will be unveiled on Tuesday, Mint conducted an online survey of its readers to gauge their mood and expectations from the annual exercise this year. The survey’s respondents expressed strong views on income tax slabs, welfare measures, and sops for big businesses. Here’s what we found.

Most of the 701 respondents who were surveyed last week expect the government to announce tax rebates, and are also hoping that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition will announce changes in tax slabs and increase exemption limits.

Tax relaxation 

An overwhelming majority called for a relaxation in the current income tax slabs and also want an increase in the exemption limit of ₹1.5 lakh under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act. Over 84% of the respondents said the government should offer relaxations in the tax slabs, and 78% want a higher Section 80C limit.

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Currently, the government imposes a tax of 30% on taxable income over ₹10 lakh under the old tax regime and over ₹15 lakh under the new regime. In the interim budget, announced in February this year, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had made no changes to the tax slabs.

The exemption limit of ₹1.5 lakh under Section 80C has remained unchanged for almost a decade.

Balancing act

The survey also found wide demand for schemes favouring women, farmers, and entrepreneurs and startups in the upcoming Budget. More than 67% of the respondents said the government should bring in schemes to favour farmers and entrepreneurs. On schemes and policies related to women, 54% of the respondents showed an interest.

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The respondents were not too sympathetic to big businesses: nearly half (49%) said the government should not treat big businesses with a softer hand to keep them happy. But 28% said the Budget 2024 should adopt a delicate approach towards big businesses.

Populist vs austere

The verdict on populist budget vis-a-vis a more austere budget remained split. While nearly 43% of the respondents favoured a populist budget, over 50% said they are expecting the government to adopt tough policy decisions, especially now that the Lok Sabha elections are over. Meanwhile, 79% of the respondents said the Budget 2024 made an impact in their daily life.

Given an option to rate the importance of creating jobs from 1 to 5, nearly 57% of the respondents went with the highest possible rating of 5. Students were more likely (80%) to want a greater emphasis on job creation in this budget. The share dipped to 57% for business owners. (However, both students and business owners were a small percentage of the sample; most respondents were salaried.)

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