Skyrocketing prices take shine off this year’s budget

While Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee gave senior citizens many reasons to rejoice, the common man is unhappy about the indifference shown by the government to basics like inflation and rising prices.

Rising cost of living is a worry for many
Retired Indian Revenue Services (IRS) officer Vasant Idurkar (89) is happy with his new, ‘very senior citizen’ tag and the new income tax limit of Rs5 lakh. The Aundh-based senior citizen, who practised as a tax consultant for 30 years following his retirement as an IRS officer in 1979 said, “Pranab Mukherjee has clearly been kind towards senior citizens. The move to reduce the age limit of senior citizens to 60 and increasing their income tax limit to Rs2.5 lakh is a welcome step.”

However, the retired IRS officer expressed dissatisfaction over the overall budget. “It is a negative budget in a sense. The income tax relief on medical expenditure remains unchanged at Rs15,000, providing no relief to the common man. There is also no talk about better and cheaper public transportation. Also, no measures have been announced to tackle inflation and corruption.”

His wife, Krishna Idurkar, 89, a former library assistant, expressed her displeasure over the rising cost of living. “The cost of vegetables, groceries and fruits are rising every day. The government has not taken any measures to control this.”

‘Senior citizens have reasons to feel happy’
Worried about inflation and the rising cost of living, retired corporate finance officer Chidanand Pathak (74) is happy that the age limit for senior citizen tax exemption up to Rs2.5 lakh has been reduced from 65 to 60.

He has also welcomed the creation of a new category of ‘very senior’ citizens of 80 years and above, who will benefit from a tax exemption limit of Rs5 lakh. But he wondered how many in that category would earn up to Rs5 lakh. “Agricultural progress will ultimately benefit the economy. Anganwadi workers too deserve better pay, which will now be granted,” he said.

His wife, Anuradha, 66, who was a teacher for the handicapped, expressed concern about rising prices of commodities and felt that this was unlikely to be addressed by the budget. She lamented that there was not much for women.

Special category has seniors smiling
The new ‘very senior citizen’ (over 80 years) category, created by Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, to provide them greater income tax relief, has thrilled octogenarians in the city.

International Longevity Centre (ILC) honorary president, Sharadchandra Gokhale (87) said, “It is good that the government has created a special category of senior citizens. The needs of octogenarians are quite different from those above 60 or 65 years.”
Interestingly, Gokhale was the secretary of the central government committee to look into the problems of citizens above 80 years. He also welcomed the minister’s move of increasing the pension bracket for senior citizens.

He said by 2050 the number of senior citizens above 80 years would be 48 million in India, of which women would be nearly 50%. This is the fastest growing group, he said.

Veteran family physician, Dr HV Sardesai, said the earning capacity at this age decreases. All Bank Retirees Federation state president Sudhakar Dhodapkar said, “I would have been happier if the age slab of very senior citizens was reduced from 80 years to 75 years.”

‘Budget does nothing to fight inflation’
Netaji Bhosale, who employs two labourers and runs a small business of repairing air-conditioners and refrigeration units, is unhappy that the budget has not done enough to fight rising costs and inflation.

The sole earning member of his family, Bhosale would have liked the tax exemption limit to be raised to Rs2 lakh (Rs1.80 lakh now) to make a real difference to his savings. Like him, his wife Sunita is upset that the budget does not have much to deal with the effects of rising fuel, food grain and vegetable prices.

“The prices of fruits and milk are going up day by day. I need to give good nutrition to my growing daughters. But the skyrocketing prices are forcing us to reduce the consumption of fruits from daily to thrice a week,” said Sunita.

This family of four - with elder daughter Shivani studying in standard IX and younger daughter Kalyani in standard IV - is also unhappy that there is not much in the budget in terms of sops in the education sector.

“Transport and labour are my other two areas of expenditure besides education,” said Bhosale. Sunita chips in with the family’s meagre income by giving tuitions to schoolchildren.

Architect couple unhappy with Pranab Da’s offer
City-based architect couple Aniruddha and Radhika Vaidya feel the budget has not addressed the question of rising inflation.

According to Aniruddha, 54, the finance minister has not dealt with issues of rising prices of food, vegetables, fruits and milk. “While the prices of cars drop because of a reduction in the cost of raw steel, there is no mention of subsidies for public transport.”

Aniruddha feels the government must beef up public transport in order to decongest roads.  His wife Radhika was upset that the finance minister had not addressed the rampant corruption in the country. “The government has not announced any methods to bring back monies siphoned out of the country in multiple scams,” she said.

Elder son Aditya, an MBA who works with a retail chain in Bangalore, expressed happiness that the income tax limit had been extended up to Rs1.8 lakh for men. His younger brother Ajay, a young architect, was upset that the government continued to discriminate between men and women for income tax limits.

Rise in tax slab and relief on home loans
The rise in the income tax exemption limit of Rs1.8 lakh is a welcome move. Also, the introduction of Rs20,000 infrastructure bonds and the reduction of interest rates on home loan by 1% are good measures introduced by the finance minister.

The reduction in steel and cement prices will ultimately help in bringing down property rates. On the other hand, introduction of a service tax on medical tests will make health care costly. Disappointment, as no concrete steps have been taken to prevent
corruption.

‘Rise in I-T exemption limit is redeeming’
For the Kambales, the Union budget was not extraordinary. Sachin Kambale is happy that the income tax exemption limit has been increased from Rs1.6 lakh to 1.8 lakh. “This has brought small relief as there will be more to spend on essential commodities, prices of which don’t seem to fall,” he said.

His wife Smita is irked because the income tax exemption for working women has remained unchanged. But Smita is happy with allocation to the agriculture sector.

“The Rs300-crore vegetable initiative, Rs300 crore to promote production of 60,000 pulses and Rs300 crore to promote nutri-cereals should increase the supply and reduce prices,” said Smita, adding that something should have been done immediately to bring immediate relief from the skyrocketing prices.