Budget 2010, Taxes and Charity

The budget of this year has brought a smile on the faces of tax payers especially the educated class more. However I feel that the government could have increased the basic exemption limit. Obviously the government would have thought about this and then decided to provide the tax breaks without tinkering the basic exemption limit.

Also we need to consider that a budget needs to be looked from a political angle and not only from social and economical angle. Finance Minister who announces the budget is a politician at the end of the day.

My point is that instead of directly increasing the slab from 5L to 8L, the government could have increased the limit to say 6.5L and increased the basic exemption limit. One of my friend who works for Citi bank made this point to his colleague who told him that if you dont like the 40K you save give it to me. This was a shock to me. There is no sense of belongingness towards the country. Taxes are a liability rather than an opportunity. We need to understand that its a contribution.

I was checking Give India site to make some donation and one of my colleagues told me that it seems I have excess money. I just smiled and said yes.

I have heard people give excuses like why should we pay taxes we dont get benefit out of it. The money doesnt reach to the bottom of the pyramid. Politicians gulp the money,etc... Now there will be savings in terms of tax which means now the same people who gave excuses should find opportunities on their own to do charity and reach to the down trodden people. In other words next year we should see a surge in the donations made by people ideally.

I have been saying this time and again that it is not about money whether you do make a difference but its about willingness to influence a change. I sincerely hope that in times to come we cut down our ambitions (read as greed) and work towards reducing the inequality in the society.