As the Union Budget 2022 is all set to be presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the salaried class employees are expecting a Work From Home Allowance in the upcoming annual financial statement to get tax relief on expenses incurred for carrying out office works from home during the pandemic. In addition, taxpayers are also expecting to get some rebate or relief from Finance Minister Sitharaman over the same.
FM Sitharaman will present Budget 2022 on February 1. This will be the fourth budget of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government in its second tenure.
To get a better understanding of what people can expect from Budget 2022, Dainik Jagran spoke to tax expert and CA Manish Kumar Gupta and tax consultant Balwant Jain. Here’s what the experts said:
Suggestions to the government
Tax expert Manish Kumar Gupta said that the decision to increase the standard deduction will depend on how much the government increases the tax. According to him, the government is getting many suggestions for personal taxation. Most of these are related to raising the limit of the standard deduction. The government can do this due to the increase in the cost of medical expenses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it should be noted here that there is no option of standard deduction available for taxpayers opting for the new tax regime.
Furthermore, Gupta mentioned that the standard deduction of Rs 40000 was introduced by the former finance minister late Arun Jaitley in 2018. Later, in 2019, it was increased by Piyush Goyal to Rs 50000 in the interim budget. Explaining the reason behind this, Gupta said that it was done to match the inflation and due to the increase in the cost of electricity and internet during the work-from-home regime.
What does Balwant Jain expect from Budget 2022?
Meanwhile, according to tax consultant Balwant Jain, FM Sitharaman can increase the limit of 80C instead of the standard deduction. The basic exemption limit and the limit of rebate under section 87A can also be increased.
