Most taxpayers want the deduction limit under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act to be doubled, according to a survey by Kuvera, a Mumbai-based online financial planning platform.
Two out of the three responders who participated in the survey wanted Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to raise the tax deduction limit under Section 80C.
Ahead of the upcoming Budget, which will be presented by FM Sitharaman on February 1, Kuvera conducted a poll among its 16 lakh users asking them of their expectations from the Union Budget 2023.
Survey findings
Following are some key expectations of the respondents revealed by the survey:
- The poll found that more than two out of three responders wished for a raise in the Income Tax deduction limits under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act.
- A number of respondents also expected the Budget 2023 to make switching from the regular to direct scheme of a Mutual Fund tax-free. Three out of every 10 responders voted for this change. Currently, the scheme is taxable.
- While the government may be announcing new measures to bring down the budget deficit to below 5%, fiscal prudence was not a top priority for taxpayers.
- Less than one in 10 said they wished for the finance minister to reduce the budget deficit to 5% or below.
“Responders said they would prefer if the limit is doubled from its current limit of Rs 1.5 lakh. The current limit hasn’t changed since 2014 and taxpayers are clearly expecting some relief from the upcoming budget,” said Gaurav Rastogi, co-founder, Kuvera.
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“According to our survey, taxpayers, at least among our user base, were more interested in tax sops than the country’s budget deficit. With the fear of recession looming large, it would be good to announce tax relief and encourage people to save more,” he added.