After all, he might as well like to steal the hearts of many with some favourable announcements in this Budget season, especially in the following domains:
Tax slabs:
Owing to the benefits of demonetization, certain banks have slashed their lending rates. However, this would be advantageous for the common man only if there is a favourable movement in the tax slabs as well. Keeping the mission of gathering every legitimate tax payer under the purview and scrutiny, and penalising all those who are avoiding taxes as the most important task, the government should also lower the tax so that so that paying tax should no longer mean burning one’s pocket. However, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry has already put forward its demand in these lines.
The government should also make the tax benefits available to the owner of the property earlier. At present, buyers can enjoy benefits only after possession. Even the deductions that they claim comes three, four or even five years after the loan had been taken.
Incentives:
In order to make Government’s plan of “Housing For All by 2022” fruitful, property prices should either drastically go down or buying these should be made attractive. Although, the last budget season was a good push for one time home buyers by making them eligible for additional Rs 50,000 tax exemption for their property purchase of up to Rs 50 lakh; but the number of beneficiaries under this announcement was limited.
The property prices for standard houses in amiable localities in most of the tier 1 cities in India are between Rs 50 lakh to Rs 2.5 crore on an average and never less than that. So if prices cannot be rationalised further, the government should at least try to provide an incentive to help the urban dwelling, averagely paid prospective home buyer so that he can buy a home in a place of his choice.
More institutionalisation:
The Government should make conclusive announcements on fronts like protection against project delays and issues of landlords insisting on cash payments despite demonetisation so that home buyers and tenants can soak in the benefits available to them.
We can’t deny that Real Estate Act 2016 did address the issue of project delays but the clauses should be dispersed to citizens. It is their right to information.
However, the Government has made itself open to suggestions and opinions from public arena through media and forums like Facebook, until 20th January where anyone can give one's inputs on the Budget 2017.