Budget expectations from individual taxpayers, investors

One of the common and long-pending demands of taxpayers is to increase tax deduction limit Under Section 80 C from the present 21.5 lakh to 3 lakh

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AS the government prepares to present the interim budget on February 1, individuals are waiting eagerly to see if the finance minister will make any announcements that change the way they invest or do savings. Individuals wait for the budget to see if there are any major taxation related changes that may affect their life in any major way.

We list a few expectations that individual investors and taxpayers have with the interim budget.

Higher tax deduction under Section 80 C: Currently, an individual can get income tax deduction benefits up to 1.5 lakh per year for contribution towards insurance premium, Employee Provident Fund (EPF), Public Provident Fund (PPF), and others. The Section 80 C also includes expenses like child tuition fee. There has been a long-pending demand from taxpayers to increase this limit to 3 lakh. This year too taxpayers would be expecting some announcement towards this.

Vighnesh Shahane, MD & CEO, Ageas Federal Life Insurance, says the government should introduce a separate tax deduction limit for life insurance as the current section 800 is too cluttered.