Why All India Pensioners Association of CBEC demands for introduction of standard deduction ? This Association also demands for a tax parity for low income employees just like small traders.

Small traders (read annual turnover not exceeding Rs 2 crore) are let off with a small tax---just 8 percent of their turnover is presumed to be their business income. And if they take care to collect all their receipts from their customers only through banking channels, just 6 percent is presumed to be their business income. Thus, if I sell goods to the tune of Rs 1 crore and have swiping machine through which alone I ask my customers to pay, then my deemed income from business during the year is just Rs 6 lakh. Parenthetically, I might have incentivised my customers to swipe their cards by dangling a discount of 5 percent so that they do not vote with their feet in favor of the neighboring kirana store that accepts cash.

I would pay tax on Rs 6 lakh assuming this is my only source of income at the applicable slab rates. This is a huge incentive to small traders given the fact that the retail margin in India is estimated to range from 30 percent to 40 percent. In other words small traders pay tax only on 6 percent of their turnover even if their net profit margin is 30 percent. With GST instilling the fear in the minds of tax evaders, the presumptive taxation scheme for small traders would have a large number of adherents.

Small professionals or traders (read annual gross receipts not exceeding Rs 50 lakh) are also let-off with a small tax---just 50 percent of their gross receipts is deemed to be their profit. Thus if a chartered accountant with gross receipts of Rs 10 lakh wants to, he can file his return showing a gross total income of just Rs 5 lakh assuming he has no other source of income. He would be let-off with a tax applicable on Rs 5 lakh.

The heightened profit margin for professionals reflects the reality that on goods the profit margin is less vis-à-vis on services. Both get section 80C deduction upto Rs 1.5 lakh if they care to save in the prescribed avenues among others.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley must ponder over this logical question in Union Budget 2018-19---Why not give a low income employee a similar treatment? A low income employee may be defined to be the one whose gross salary income is not more than Rs 15 lakh. Why not deem just 60 percent of such salary as his taxable salary income?

Before someone raises the apple and oranges objection (you cannot compare a professional and a low income employee just as you cannot an apple and orange), let me offer the rationale for seeking parity of tax treatment among small income earning men and women. One of the canons of taxation is horizontal equity.

If a professional with gross receipts of Rs 10 lakh can be presumed to have earned just Rs 5 lakh with no proof asked, then in all fairness a low income income earning employee with a tighter norm of smallness should also be let off lightly. That a professional incurs business expenditure whereas a low income earning employee doesn't is a technicality that should not be allowed to come in the way of according parity of tax treatment.

There could be a pedantic objection as well---the 40 percent deduction sought may be a huge standard deduction from salary. But the point is if professionals can be given a 50 percent standard deduction, there is nothing wrong in employees being given a 40 percent standard deduction.

The Budget would throw pell-mell would be another extreme, alarmist reaction what with intuitively almost 80 percent of the salaried employees making the grade as low income employees. The answer lies in extending the tax net to bring more and more businessmen and professionals and hitherto hard-to-tax category into the tax net as well as in taxing the capital market more fully and not in refusing to give parity of treatment among small traders,  professionals and low income employees.

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.