NEW DELHI: Bankers on Friday urged the government to raise TDS limit for bank interest from the current Rs 10,000, especially for senior citizens and pensioners, to have a credit guarantee fund to encourage investment in Agriculture Sector. It was also suggested that premium up to Rs 1 lakh on life insurance policies be exempted from income tax.
Small and marginal farmers have come together to form FPOs rather than cooperatives – should get the same benefits as those of companies; Incentives should be given for investments to promote agriculture and infrastructure; Crop Insurance benefits and interest subvention on agriculture credit be given through DBT to avoid misuse; Incentives for incremental jobs among others, banker told the finance minister.
The Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Arun Jaitley, held meetings with bankers as part of his pre-Budget consultations on Friday.
Among other suggestions are to encourage affordable housing, tax benefits to rental properties; time limit of recognition of bad debts should be aligned; Monthly reporting by banks to income tax department should be waived with only annual reporting;
It was suggested to incentivise digital transactions to make 2018 as a year of paperless access to finance; it was also suggested to extend the date of Masala Bond TDS, which expires in June 2018, among others.
Bankers who met FM
Stakeholders representing the Banking and Financial Institutions who attended Friday’s meeting included N S Vishwanathan, deputy governor, Reserve Bank of India, Jatinder Bir Singh, Chairman Indian Banks Association, Rajnish Kumar, Chairman SBI, Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI, Shikha Sharma, MD&CEO, AXIS Bank among others