The complaint with the new plan was that there was no standard deduction. It is now given,” FM states.
Nirmala Sitharaman, the union finance minister, said in Udupi on Friday that the Narendra Modi administration has given middle-class citizens many tax breaks, including an exemption from paying income tax on earnings till Rs 7.27 lakh per annum,
Some amount of clarification was required in some quarters when the decision was made to give tax exemption for people earning up to Rs 7 lakh in the Union Budget for 2024–24 while asserting that no segment of society had been left out by the government.
The uncertainty centered on what would happen to those profits, which were just over Rs 7 lakh, she said.
“We thus convened as a team and investigated the data to determine when you pay tax for every incremental Rs 1 you earn. For instance, you currently pay no taxes on income of Rs. 7.27 lakh. Only at Rs 27,000 does it reach break-even. You start paying taxes after that.
You are also entitled to the standard deduction of Rs. The complaint with the new system was that there was no standard deduction. It is presently given. We have made the paying rate and the compliance side simpler,” Sitharaman added.
Commenting on the government’s successes, she said that the entire budget for Micro, Small, and Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSME) increased from Rs 3,185 crore in 2013–14 to Rs 22,138 crore for 2024–24.
This is an almost seven-fold increase in budgetary funding in only nine years, symbolizing the government’s unwavering dedication to supporting the MSME sector, she said.
She claimed that under the “Public Procurement Policy for Micro and Small Enterprises” initiative, MSMEs accounted for 33% of all purchases made by 158 Central Public Sector Enterprises—the most significant percentage to date.
We created the Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS) platform, she continued, “so that MSMEs and other businesses wouldn’t experience any cash flow problems as a result of a customer’s failure to pay.”
According to Sitharaman, the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) has made it possible for MSME enterprises to connect with a larger pool of potential clients.
She also remarked that the world respects India’s establishment of a public platform equivalent to the “Amazons of the world.”
The minister noted that the world is taking notice of India’s efforts to make doing business easier, noting that the nation’s rating in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index increased from 142 in 2014 to 63 in 2019.
“By removing more than 1,500 antiquated rules and about 39,000 compliances, they decreased the burden of unneeded compliance. The Companies Act has been made less punishable, she stated.
Sitharaman laid the cornerstone for IIGJ in Udupi in 2017 while serving as the Minister of Commerce and Industries. Her MPLADS (Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme) money, together with assistance from the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council & National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, was used to establish the facility.
The institute will instruct young people in the area in all facets of manufacturing handmade jewelry.
Sitharaman went to the Adamar Mutt and the Sri Krishna Temple in Udupi earlier in the day.
