Majority gives thumbs up to budget proposal on income tax slabs

New Delhi, Feb 2 (SocialNews.XYZ) People seem to have given a thumbs up to Budget proposals on personal income tax where Finance Minister Nirmala Sithraman has given the option of different tax slabs for individuals who opt to forgo all exemptions.

According to an IANS-CVoter post-budget poll, 57.8 per cent of those surveyed termed the government's decision to increase income tax exemption at different levels for income groups above Rs 5 lakh as good that met most of the requirements of taxpayers.

Presenting the budget proposals in Parliament, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman gave option to taxpayers to pay taxes at a lower rate if they agree to forego al exemptions. She retained the current tax slab for those continuing with the present system.

The new tax slab reduces the tax rate to 10 and 15 per cent for those currently in 20 per cent bracket, and 20-25 per cent to those on 30 per cent tax bracket.

The survey interviewed about 1,200 randomly selected respondents across all demographies.

As per the survey, 27.3 per cent respondents felt that the government move in the Budget left much more to be desired and the proposals on personal income tax was just "ok". Another 12 per cent respondents termed the government decision to tinker with tax rates and slabs as "poor" that provided much less than what was required.

Interestingly, while a majority support the government decision, the net approval rating of the decision stood at 45.7 per cent. Approval rating below 50 is termed negative.

Source: IANS