CHENNAI: As FM Nirmala Sitharaman prepares to present yet another Union Budget, Chennaiites from different walks of life share their expectations from this year’s announcement and suggest measures for the larger community’s greater good
Tamilarasi Babu, Assistant public prosecutor, legal advisor to Chennai Police Commissioner
F or the prosecution, conducting trials is the main framework. It requires good infrastructure. I wish this year’s budget includes funds for infrastructure development in the public prosecution and police sectors. Many police stations are becoming model police stations because of the funds from the government. For an effective resolution mechanism, a legal resolution forum along the grievance cell of the police department must be built and managed. To conduct effective prosecution trials, an expert advisory board with retired prosecutors and police officials should be funded so that they can have an expert committee and perform police reforms. Since no separate infrastructure exists for the state-recruited prosecutors, the prosecutors recruited through TNPSC should be allocated funds for training at the prosecutors’ academy.
Dr Krithika Datta, Prof & HoD Conservative Dentistry & Endodontics & Cariology, Saveetha Dental College & Hospitals
From the perspective of a healthcare provider, researcher and academician over the past 15 years, I would hope the FY-23 Budget reduces the import tax on dental equipment and products. It is often the cost incurred for the procurement of these goods that escalates the cost of quality dental treatment in India. Relaxing the taxes in these sections will allow better trade options. This will have a double impact in the dental scenario — reduced cost of treatment and an opportunity to innovate and indigenous manufacture of such goods. The latter would reduce our nation’s dependence on imported goods.
Yuvan M, environmentalist
The Union Budget should recognise wealth and investment in all its true forms — ecological, climate, social well-being and justice. It should be bold enough to stray away from merely economic growth which is myopic and often injurious to places and peoples.
Sakina Ansari, Founder/ Director, MAALGAADi & WICCI President - National Handloom Council
I want the government to develop a budget that supports easy business, boosts consumption, and recoups investment. For this to happen, the household had to raise its spending, which is only possible if they have more money on hand. Therefore, we need tax relief for the middle class, particularly the salaried class. Another glaring issue that industry observers want the upcoming budget to address is the issue of multiple identities needed for conducting business operations. Presently, enterprises are required to obtain multiple identities (PF, ESIC, PAN, CIN, TAN etc.) issued by various central and state government departments. This has created a situation wherein there is no single source of truth for building corporate compliance and risk profiles. Women entrepreneurs, working in the sustainable sector, need support via grants. Reinventing our indigenous crafts needs support and funding. GST for handlooms and handmade products should be reduced.
G Dillibabu, Axess Film Factory
What we seek is financial aid from the govern-ment, like the MSMEs get. Secondly, the entertainment tax is placed on a higher bracket. This needs to be removed or restricted to a reasonable 3-4% rather than the whopping 18%. The government can also look to set up theatres, which will, in turn, create employment opportunities.
Vinod Kumar, Mini Studios
Unlike the trade industry where you pay GST and sell the product immediately, in cinema, we pay GST on salaries, and we get it only when the film hits the theatres. This is a burden for us. The government must also develop film cities everywhere. If all film cities are brought under the central government, and some are developed in each state, it would help producers and generate employment.
Sharmila Devadoss, Managing Director of MedIoTek Health Systems
For MSME Make in India MedTech companies, we need a Rs 500-crore fund to set up an ecosystem that will aid in the sourcing of components, manufacturing, regulatory approvals and market access through strategic partnerships. This will help bring down production costs, reduce time-to-market and facilitate homegrown affordable, appropriate technology innovations that will go a long way in achieving universal health coverage and democratising healthcare.
Dr Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals Group
Budget 2023 can provide a huge fillip to create the kind of healthcare ecosystem that will propel India to achieve global leadership. One major factor will be Public-Private Partnerships, especially in providing community-focused solutions for improved services. Further incentivising health-seeking behaviour by tweaking the tax slabs, reconsidering GST terms, promoting health infrastructure and exponential investments in research and development will immensely help in addressing concerns of both affordability and accessibility.
David Baker, class 10 student, Montfort Matriculation Higher Secondary School, St. Thomas Mount
The government-owned schools are to be made on par with the private schools, not just in terms of academics but also in soft skills. This will help the government schoolchildren have confidence in themselves and progress towards developing our country’s economy when they continue their higher studies. The banks must, on student loans, have a no-interest policy and extend student repayment time. This will help them pursue higher education, including professional courses. The government must adopt policies of easy access to healthcare, free education, and food at affordable prices, create job opportunities and ensure security and safety in the lives of the present and future generations, in the new budget plan, to make the economy of India evolve from a developing to a developed one.
B Soundararajan, chairman, Suguna Group
In the forthcoming budget, we hope to see reforms and support related to animal agriculture as this will enhance farmer productivity and sustainability. Animal agriculture’s contribution to agriculture GDP, which is now at 27%, must be increased to 40% in the coming years. This will be beneficial in multiple ways like better sustainability on farmer income, organic manure to replace chemical fertiliser and for consumers, high-quality protein to ensure nutritional security. I request the government treat animal agriculture at par with direct agriculture. GST on soya seeds and meals should be exempted. We believe that reversing this tendency will be beneficial to farmers. We recommend the banking industry to consider animal husbandry loans as agricultural loans as this will ease the process of approvals.
S Kambarrajan, AGM (retd) Bank of Baroda
As a senior citizen, I expect the tax exemption limit to be increased to Rs 5 lakh and for senior citizens at least Rs 1 lakh more. This has been the demand of all political parties for the last 10 years. There is no collective organisation to represent taxpayers and senior citizens. The tax rate has to be reduced to 7.5% up to Rs 10 lakhs, instead of different slabs, as most of the senior citizens fall under this category. GST is at 18% on health insurance premiums, insurance premiums, mutual funds etc. Health insurance premiums for senior citizens have skyrocketed, around Rs 75,000 per annum without domiciliary treatment. Medical expenses and house rents have gone up. Rail travel concessions are withdrawn. With a constant increase in expenses and no increase in earnings, it will be very difficult for senior citizens to live with income tax levels remaining at the same level.
Compiled by Anusha Sundar, Anushree Madhavan, Diya Maria George