S. Shyamala, Coonoor

RAISE IT CEILING AND SAVINGS LIMIT AND SCRAP TDS

Unable to bear the choking inflation, middle-income households are living in a fear of uncertain future as no money is left for saving to meet future commitments. Their house-door expense on food items, especially, vegetables, fruits and grocery has trebled in the last one year. With everyone claiming an increase citing hike in their living cost, housewives’ expense on rent, water, electricity, education, uniform, shoes, medical, phone and cable has skyrocketed, further hiking their living cost. In effect, housewives’ overall expense to run the family has risen five times in the last three years. In many homes, income has reduced due to job or salary cut arising from recessionary impact. There is a definite need to assure security by increasing the future paying-capacity of middle-income households. This can happen only with incentives for saving. The tax policy should promote saving. While increasing the bank interest rates is welcome, TDS should not harass small depositors. So, the Finance Minister should (a) raise the IT exemption level to Rs 3 lakh, (b) increase allowable deduction under Section 80 C to Rs 2 lakh and (c) scrap TDS on bank interest or raise the annual ceiling to Rs one lakh.