Budget 2018: What do Indians expect from Arun Jaitley?

In a nutshell, people want an increase in income tax slabs, higher spending on agriculture and infrastructure, greater efforts toward skilling and more public investment to drive growth.

New Delhi, Jan 18: Union finance minister Arun Jaitley is all set to present the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government's last budget on February 1.

The upcoming Union budget will be the last full budget of the Narendra Modi government. The budget in 2019 will only be a vote-on-account.

There is a lot of buzz surrounding the budget and voters are expecting various largesses and reliefs from the kitty of the finance minister. Several media houses have spoken to common people to know what they want from Jaitley.

CNBC-TV18 in partnership with @LocalCircles has conducted a mega pan-India poll to gauge the mood of the country and what people are expecting from the finance minister. The poll is based on 125,000 responses from 50,000 unique participants in 200 cities over three weeks.

Here are the findings of the poll:

1. 38 per cent say agriculture should get the most fund allocation.

2. 56 per cent expect a sizable allocation of funds for skill development.

3. 35 per cent believe better awareness will increase tax collection.

4. 31 per cent want income tax exemption limit to be hiked to Rs 3 lakh.

5. 36 per cent want the corporate tax rate to be cut to 25 per cent at one shot.

6. 25 per cent believe a cut in corporate tax won't improve investments.

7. 45 per cent want a tax on small businesses to be cut to 18 per cent to improve compliance.

8. 44 per cent say railways should spend most of its funds on improving safety.

9. 45 per cent say government and private hospitals should be made more accountable.

In a nutshell, people want an increase in income tax slabs, higher spending on agriculture and infrastructure, greater efforts toward skilling and more public investment to drive growth.

OneIndia News