Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday describing the Union Budget as “by the people, for the people, and of the people” said that ” We have heard the voice of the middle class “, who had been complaining about their aspirations not being met despite being honest taxpayers,
Saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi was fully behind the idea to cut taxes but it took time to convince the bureaucrats, speaking on the Budget 2025-2026 she said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was very clear he wanted to do something on tax relief.
Her remark comes a day after the Budget for the fiscal year was tabled which announced “zero income tax” on income up to Rs 12 lakhs. In an exclusive interview with a news agency, she said that what followed was a strategy towards that step and under the Prime Minister’s guidance the step was taken.
“There are a couple of things, which have been in the works for some time. One is the thought that the direct tax should be made simple and that it should be easy for compliance, and the tomb that goes in the name of direct taxation or Income Tax Act, will have to be a lot simpler,” the Finance Minister said.
She said that for the act, the emphasis was on simplifying the language, reducing the compliance burden, and also to make it a bit more user-friendly, and not let it suffer due to various interpretations, which also was sought to be termed as rent-seeking tools.
The Finance Minister said that the tax proposal will allow people to have more money in their hands. “States should engage with the Finance Commission, not blame Centre over tax devolution,” Sitharaman said.
“There are a couple of things, which have been in the works for some time. One is the thought that the direct tax should be made simple and that it should be easy for compliance, and the tomb that goes in the name of direct taxation or Income Tax Act, will have to be a lot simpler. So that work, as announced in the July 2024 Budget, within six months we were getting ourselves ready, to get the new income tax act ready”, she said.
In the process, the Finance Minister said that although the emphasis was more towards simplifying the language, reducing the compliance burden, and also to make it a bit more user-friendly, and not let it suffer due to various interpretations, which also was sought to be termed as rent-seeking tool.
