I am now beginning to feel the iron hand of my grandmother who, at the age of 86, still launches herself every week upon unsuspecting street hawkers, bringing down the price of a pair of chaddi-banyan from Rs.80 to a mere Rs.30. She also waxes lyrical about ‘those days’ when a coconut laddoo bought from the corner-side tuck shop costed 4 annas. That is also how Arun Jaitley is making us all feel with his new Budget 2015, that seems to primarily focus on ‘Save More, Spend Less’.
Their new motto basically means all of us, especially the middle class, have to tighten our belts and grin and bear the increased expenditure that comes from increasing the service tax from 12.36% to 14%. This means everything we do, except for breathing, living and working will be taxed extra, making it difficult to have anything but bare sustenance. This list includes eating out, grooming, movies, phone and bank bills, holiday, travel, and even grocery shopping.
Include increased liquor and cigarette prices to this list and the BJP, with a single stroke of a pen, has done a better job of curbing the ‘western influence’ of ‘partying’ and ‘dating’ than even Shiv Sena’s bevy of thugs and hoodlums. The RSS must be so proud of Jaitley right now.
The first person to get affected by this would of course be the waiter. After every satisfying meal, when the hand moves towards the wallet to fish out a generous tip to the waiter, Arun Jaitley would pop in our heads, reminding us of the huge service tax that we are paying. And the generous hand would quickly be retracted.
But the person who would be most affected by it is the married woman; working or housewife; with or without children. Even in progressive households, it is the woman who handles the balance sheet and it’s not going to look pretty this year. On one hand the prices of everything from schooling, grocery prices and even gymming have increased thanks to rise in education cess and service tax. On the other hand, increased tax deduction limits, pension and mediclaim limits mean we save more at the end of the year. So with increased basic expenditure and larger amounts going towards savings, there will be very little disposable income left each month for leisure.
It basically means that an individual tax payer under the 30% income tax bracket could potentially save a total of Rs.21,506 in taxes in the next financial year. But he will need to invest about Rs 60,000 more in pension plans and health insurance to avail of this tax saving.
In all, it is going to be a pretty stressful year for women who manage households, because there will have to be considerable tightening of belts.
There was much talk and speculation over how this budget would be focused on women. Well, we have already seen what kind of a year the working woman and the homemaker would have, financially. Socially, the government seems to be offering something better for women, in terms of safety. After two years of near inaction, a part of the existing Rs.1000 crore from the Nirbhaya fund has been diverted to railways to set up surveillance cameras, while an additional Rs.1000 crore would be added to the fund from this year’s Budget.
There are a couple of smaller things like a tax-free bank account for minor girls and apprenticeship training institutes for women to encourage entrepreneurial spirit. However, combined together, these are mere bucketfuls in a vast ocean.
Given the number of expectations of the BJP government from this Budget, the outcome has frankly been a big letdown. The additional taxation is supposed to be replenishing the empty coffers of the government. But from past experience, we Indians have little expectation of tax revenue and public money being put to good use.
As for the Nirbhaya fund, since the government has not elaborated yet on how they plan to utilise the fund, we women can just pray it is actually used to make this country safer for us. Just Pray. Nothing Else.
Image Courtesy: BCCL
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