A better deal for citizens

This refers to ‘Lower tax rates, not a great idea’ (January 25). There’s need for a comprehensive review of the policies on prices, income and wages for integrating workable action points into the Budget exercise. Taxpayers deserve better services in addition to healthcare and lifetime social security. Just as prices of goods and services should take care of remunerative production, storage and marketing costs, wages (including daily wages) in all sectors should cover healthcare and cost of post-job life.

MG Warrier

Mumbai

Raise deductions

Merely reducing income tax rates will not help taxpayers. The Budget should aim at making available as much cash balances with taxpayers as possible.

Liquidity is foremost to meet basic expenses, and then only comes investments.

Therefore, the basic taxable income should be raised to at least ₹8 lakh and for senior citizens and very senior citizens it should be ₹10 lakh.

The standard deduction should be hiked to ₹1 lakh and the limit under Section 80D, to ₹1 lakh. All the eligible deductions to senior citizens and chronically ill patients should be restored.

Katuru Durga Prasad Rao

Hyderabad

Mis-selling bonds

Apropos ‘Breaking the Bond’ (January 25), both wealth managers who mis-sold the AT1 bonds and investors who became blind in greed are equally guilty. Every investment product has a certain amount of risk. There is no doubt that no other bank is going to write off AT1 bonds in the near future as all look safe and sound, but whatever decision the apex court takes will have a huge bearing in the banking sector in general and Yes Bank in particular.

The Supreme Court should be pragmatic and should not come too harsh on either the RBI or Yes Bank in this case.

Bal Govind

Noida

Rights and duties

This is with reference to the news report ‘R-Day build-up slogan — Har Dil Mein Samvidhan’ (January 25).

Many times, we talk about our rights but we seldom perform/speak about our duties.

More than smart cities or smart villages, we need smart people who are not only aware of their rights but also their duties.

Nations are built by people. If a small nation like Singapore can become prosperous in a short span of time how can a vast nation like India, with its vast natural resources and youth power, lag behind in development?

The main reason is we are busy fighting over trivial issues based on caste and religion, whereas Singapore took strong steps to curb corruption and invested heavily in education, health and infrastructure.

It is rightly said that people can either make or break a nation.

Unless we change our mindset nothing will change, and people should be apprised of this.

Veena Shenoy

Thane

Plant-based ghee

The refers to ‘FSSAI to clamp down on firms selling food items with plant-based ghee’ (January 25). The so-called vegan ghee cannot be produced without the use of hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils. So, the plant-based vegan ghee contains trans fats, which increases ‘bad’ cholesterol and lowers ‘good’ cholesterol. The FSSAI decision to take “enforcement action” on businesses dealing in plant-based ghee and its products is welcome.

Kosaraju Chandramouli

Hyderabad

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