Shri Lokanath Mishra , Secretary General of All India Pensioners Association of CBEC sought re-introduction of standard deduction for salaried income tax payers including pensioners in Union Budget 2018.

Shri Lokanath Mishra , Secretary General of All India Pensioners Association of CBEC sought re-introduction of standard deduction for salaried income tax payers including pensioners in Union Budget 2018.

It is learnt from  reliable sources that in the ensuing Union Budget-2018 the threshold  exemption limit of income tax  is likely to be increased up to Rs. 3,00,000.00 per annum,  which is a very negligible benefit to salary class as well as pensioners. There for considering  such proposal for negligible increase, in its representation to the Finance Ministry, Shri Lokanath  Mishra , Secretary General of  All India Pensioners Association of CBEC  sought re-introduction  of standard deduction for salaried income tax payers including pensioners in Union Budget 2018. "Keeping in mind the rate of inflation and purchasing power of the salaried individuals and pensioners," it said, "Re-introduction of the standard deduction for salaried employees and pensioners  to at least Rs 3,00,000.00 (will) ease the tax burden of them."Standard deduction on salary was available to individual income tax payers till 2006, when it was done away with by the then UPA government. Only one per cent of Indians pay income tax and the salaried employees/pensioners form a majority of income tax payers in terms of absolute numbers.However, the salaried class' /pensioners'contribution in income tax collection is not much in terms of volume, primarily because they occupy bottom layers of the personal income tax payers. This makes a strong case for re-introduction of standard deduction on salary in the Union Budget 2018 by Finance Minister Arun Jaitely. Unlike self-employed individuals, super-rich farmers and businessmen, salaried people including pensioners are at disadvantage in terms of income tax liabilities. Income from agriculture is not taxed. People engaged in agriculture get a variety of subsidies and rebates irrespective of their annual income.A business professional gets a range of deductions in the name of legitimate business expenditure including expenses incurred on office rent and staff. They are also entitled for deduction on travel expenses, customer entertainment expenditure, fuel bills, driver's salary, fees paid for undertaking skill development programs and even for expenditure incurred in subscribing business journals.These deductions lower their income tax burden and give them with more money in hand to maintain their quality of life. But, a salaried person is not allowed similar deductions and left to fend off inflation with limited income at a time when cost of living is perennially rising. Salaried income tax payers enjoy only a few tax free allowances. One example that is often cited by the employees is the exemption on up to Rs 1,600 per month for transport allowance.Someone living in Delhi, even if  he/she travels by Delhi Metro, has to pay on an average somewhere between Rs 70-100 as train fare besides what he/she spends on his/her last mile journey. Tax exempted on a transport allowance of Rs 1,600 is too meager in his/ her case. If someone is employed in a job that requires tele-calling or round-the-clock customer services - and this includes banking and even journalism - there is a limit on reimbursement for the phone bill. Beyond this limit the person loses money from salary which puts him/ her at great disadvantage. Apart from a demand to re introduced standard deduction Shri Lokanath Mishra , Secretary General of  All India Pensioners Association of CBEC  also demands for increase of threshold limit of exemption up to 7 lakh  for senior citizens and  6 laks for  others. 

Compared to salaried class, business professionals enjoy more tax exemptions.

Further, if an over-enthusiastic salaried professional enrolls in a course to hone his/ her skills - say 
software or communication skills - he/she is not entitled for a tax deduction unlike  his/her
 counterpart from business class.In some cases, where employers do not give a specific house
 rent allowance component in employees' salary, the maximum deduction available for the 
salaried person is Rs 2,000 a month - unchanged since 1998. This is utterly out of sync with 
present-day realities of even tier two or tier three cities and towns.There is a cap on reimbursement 
against medical expenses at Rs 15,000. There has been demand that this limit be raised to
 Rs 50,000 given the rising cost of healthcare in the country with public hospitals becoming
 least favoured by even lower income group people.Standard deduction would offer some parity
 between salaried and non-salaried personal income tax payers.An Indian individual income tax
 payer's liabilities are calculated on his/her gross salary. But, if  he/she migrates to countries 
USA, UK, Germany, Japan, Thailand or even Singapore for the same job and remuneration,
 he/she will get an allowance in the form of standard deduction for expenses related with 
salary income. With technologies changing at a fast pace, every employee needs to
 upgrade his/her skills, and considerable expenses are incurred on undergoing training, 
purchasing books or acquiring some specialization required on job to sustain in the employment 
market. In the US, a standard deduction of USD 6,300-12,500 (Rs 4.3-8.5 lakh) is available to 
salaried employees. Corresponding figure in the UK is GBP 12,000 (Rs 10 lakh), 1000 euros 
(Rs 73,000) in Germany and in Singapore, it is 1,000 Singaporean dollar (Rs 48,000).
 Before being taken away, an Indian salaried employee could claim a flat standard deduction of
 Rs 30,000 from hisher salary income or 40 per cent of it (for annual salary under Rs 5 lakh) 
and Rs 20,000 (in case of annual salary exceeding Rs 5 lakhs).