by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
Govt buckles under Pressure
It will be Interim Budget now on February 1
No tinkering with Income-tax code
Harish Gupta
New Delhi, Jan 30
Stung by wide-spread criticism of government's intentions to present a full budget on February 1, the Union Finance ministry today clarified that it will present an “interim budget” .
Finance ministry officials denied reports in the media that it will be a full budget for the year 2019-20 by Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal.
The Ministry official asserted that it will be a vote-on-account, as the Lok Sabha elections are likely to be held in April and May. “The Budget will be called Interim Budget 2019-’20,” Ministry of Finance Official Spokesperson DK Joshi said today.
The official asserted that there was no confusion in the ministry. However, if there is any policy announcement, it is not a budgetary exercise.
Obviously, the government wants to douse the fire on the issue after shouting from the roof-tops that it had every right to take into account the needs of the people and incorporate the same in the proposed Budget. In fact, Arun Jaitley asserted this in a statement before leaving for the USA for treatment. Some of the Cabinet Ministers of the Modi government have also been saying that several new schemes are at works.
These assertions sparked condemnation by the Opposition and the Congress even threatened to stage protests if the government presents a full budget instead of a vote-on-account, which is a convention followed by outgoing administrations for decades. Congress leader in Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma had said that such a step would be a “blatant violation of Constitutional propriety”.
Insiders in North Block, however, say that the Interim Budget may not propose any Income-tax related slab changes. But offering relief to targeted section will not fall in the full budget category.
While several governments have tinkered with indirect taxes, most finance ministers have kept income tax rates unchanged in the interim budget.
In 1977-78, the then finance minister H M Patel proposed to enable companies to make deposits with the industrial development bank of india in lieu of payment of surcharge of income tax. The bill proposed the discontinuance of the duty on salt for the year.
In 1980-81, Finance Minister R Venkataram proposed income tax exemption for residents of Ladakh those assesses engaged in poverty alleviation, corporations or other bodies promoting the interests of the Scs/STs. The Bills proposed to levy auxiliary duties of customs on all imported goods.
In 2004-05, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh proposed levy of national calamity contingent duty on certain items. Amendments were proposed in baggage rules also. In 2014-15, even Finance Minister P Chidambaram proposed changes in customs duty structure on non-edible grade industrial oils, fatty acids and fatty alcohols, Exemption from countervailing duty on specified imported road construction machinery withdrawn and Concessional customs duty on imported capital goods to encourage domestic production of security paper for printing currency notes
