Union Budget 2023-24: Ludhiana Industrialists, traders pin high hopes

Tribune News Service

Shivani Bhakoo

Ludhiana, January 31

The Union Government is all set to present the Budget tomorrow and businessmen and traders have high hopes from the annual financial statement.

Taxpayers are hoping that the current basic exemption limit of Rs 2.5 lakh will be increased to Rs 5 lakh under both tax regimes. The current threshold of Rs 10 lakh for the 30 per cent tax bracket may also be raised to Rs 20 lakh, said CA Mantosh Gupta, adding that currently, the taxpayers can claim a deduction for interest paid up to Rs 2 lakh on home loan. The limit may be revisited as EMIs have reached highest in the past several months due to RBI’s changes in the repo rate. Besides, many traders feel that GST rates of 28 per cent category may be reviewed to bring down rates of some items to 18 per cent to increase the overall collection and decrease theft/avoidance of tax. The GST rates of textile category should not be changed. Tarun Jain Bawa from the Textile Association, Bahadurke Road, said the textile manufacturing business, which is highly labour intensive, has gone down drastically during the past two years.

“One basic reason is that raw cotton prices in the country are higher than the average international prices. To increase the textile production for domestic as well as export market, the import duty on raw cotton should be reduced/abolished to bring parity in international prices and become competitive,” said Bawa.

Businesses, domestic as well exports, especially of MSMEs, since 2020 have been slow due to various reasons. Hence, the income have gone down drastically. Many businessmen suggested that rate of income tax of proprietorship partnership companies and individuals be brought down to 25 per cent. This way the number of taxpayers will also increase with an overall increase in the tax collection. The mega textile park at Mattewara in Ludhiana refused by the government should be reinstated on a suitable land in consultation with the textile industry.

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