Union Budget: Tax payers likely to get some relief

New Delhi, Mar 15: Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is likely to declare the tax exemption limit to Rs 2 lakh on Friday, Mar 16, when he will present the Union Budget for the year 2012-13 in Lok Sabha.

However, the standing committee of Parliament has proposed finance minister raising the tax exemption limit to Rs 3 lakh but FM has reportedly not agreed to the committee proposal in view of the need to contain fiscal deficit.

It is also learnt that government may hike duties on luxury items to raise resources. Moreover, FM may increase the foreign direct investment in Indian insurance sector.

Furthermore, the government is likely to set disinvestment target for the next fiscal at Rs 30,000 crore.

The biggest challenge before Mukherjee would be to arrest decline in economic growth which is expected to touch a three year low of 6.9 per cent in the current fiscal, down from 8.4 per cent in the two previous years.

OneIndia News