Think before taxing

Levy of LTCG tax should have been given more careful consideration. An investment in the equity markets cannot be compared with other forms of investment as there is absolutely no guarantee for the principal amount. Even the investments in company deposits or mutual funds stand on a sounder footing. There is no risk mitigation whatsoever for investors in equities. While no taxes or levies are normally payable on other forms of investment, an equity investment attracts several taxes/levies on both purchase and sale of the transaction.

For poorly performing sectors, the grandfathering clause will be of no help because the original purchase price would be much higher than the January 31, 2018 benchmark price that is to be used for calculation of LTCG. Hence, it may be more appropriate to permit use of the higher benchmark price or the original purchase price. The Government should permit set-off of LTG losses against future gains and carry forward long-rerm losses on the same footing as short-term losses.

We should resist the temptation to impose a tax just because a particular activity is benefiting from favourable economic conditions.

Hyderabad

It’s good that the budget has proposed to give MSP to farmers but this will shoot up the prices of all essential commodities like wheat, rice, pulses and perhaps also vegetables and fruits. The farmers are in a few lakhs, but common men, women and children are in crores. The FM should have remembered this. A budget means proposals, not the final decision.

Mumbai

It is learnt that PNB and SBI have raised interest rates on term deposits between ₹1 crore and ₹10 crore. Why this increase only for rich savers? This proves that the Government encourages the rich and not the salaried or the small savers. It is the Indian state that widens inequalities of income and wealth although one of its objectives is to reduce such inequalities.

Chennai

This refers to ‘Will the healthcare push pay off?’ by Radhika Merwin (February5). In 2003-04, the Government launched the Universal Health Insurance Scheme but it failed to elicit the targetted beneficiaries’ imprimatur due to the exploitation of the Claim Minimisation Clause by Third Party Administrators (TPAs).

Arun Jaitley has come up with a premium cost of around ₹1,000-1,200 per family for the proposed health insurance scheme, but he has not provided sufficient information to show his scheme is “different”.

Prudence demands that the Government proceed with caution and learn from the experience of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in the USA which was a major subject of litigation. Most of the insurance companies backed out of participating in Obamacare because of fewer subscriptions and rising insurances costs. With the US Supreme Court endorsing the provision requiring most individuals to purchase health insurance or pay penalty, the scheme was perceived as a system of “torturing” Americans and had to be ultimately scrapped by the Trump administration. It is time the Government engaged with all stakeholders before rolling out a tax-funded universal health coverage plan for its citizens.

Delhi

The terrible triad — tomato, onion and potato — has triumphed over the erstwhile war cry: development. Realisation has dawned on the Government in an election year. Onion prices were the decisive factor in the 1998 State elections in Delhi and Rajasthan, and were responsible for bringing down the central government in 1980. Potato prices peaked in April 2011 during Anna Hazare’s first rally. By December, prices crashed and his Mumbai rally had no attendance. TOP has now forced the Government to descend from Davos and the pedantics of DeMo and GST to arbitrate on ground realities.

Navi Mumbai

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