Nirmala Sitharaman, the union finance minister, said in Udupi on Friday that the Narendra Modi administration has given middle-class citizens various tax perks, including an exemption from paying income tax on income up to Rs 7.27 lakh annually. She noted the scepticism in some quarters when it was decided to grant income tax exemption for people earning up to Rs 7 lakh in the Union Budget for 2023–24 while asserting that no segment of society had been left out by the government. The uncertainty centred on what would happen to those profits, which were just over Rs 7 lakh, she said.
FM Sitharaman Highlights Simplicity and Standard Deduction Benefits
“So, we sat as a team and went into the details (to find out) at what stage you pay tax for every additional Re 1 you earn… (for instance) for Rs 7.27 lakh, you don’t pay any tax now. It is only at Rs 27,000 that the break even comes. After that you start paying tax. You have a standard deduction of Rs 50,000 also. Under the new scheme, the grievance was that there was no standard deduction. It is given now. We have brought in the simplicity in the paying rate and the compliance side,” Sitharaman said. Speaking of the government’s accomplishments, she said that the entire budget for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) increased from Rs 3,185 crore in 2013–14 to Rs 22,138 crore for 2023–24. The government’s consistent commitment to empowering the MSME sector is symbolised by this increase in budgetary allocation, which has increased nearly seven times in the past nine years, she said. She claimed that 33% of all purchases made by 158 Central Public Sector Enterprises under the Public Procurement Policy for Micro and Small Enterprises” initiative came from MSMEs, which is the greatest percentage to date.
TReDS Platform Eases Cash Flow Concerns for MSMEs
“We launched the TReDS platform (Trade Receivables Discounting System) so that the MSMEs and other corporations do not have to face any liquidity crunch due to non-payment by their buyer,” she said. According to Sitharaman, the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) has made it possible for MSME enterprises to connect with a bigger 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.
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