Spokesperson: Shri Praveen Chakravarty: He said that on July23, the Finance Minister Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman presented the government’s budget in Parliament. At that time, we welcomed certain aspects of the budget, but we also strongly opposed many parts of the budget. We welcomed the fact, that the Finance Minister took some ideas from the Congress Party’s Manifesto, you may remember such as the employment linked incentive (ELI) scheme, the Apprenticeship scheme and removing Angle tax. But among other things, we strongly opposed, what the finance minister did to the middle class and salaried professionals.

The Leader of the Opposition Shri Rahul Gandhi in his response to the budget in Parliament categorically said that this was a betrayal of the middle class through removal of indexation and higher taxes on their savings and investment gains. He promised to fight for the middle class on this issue. Don’t think this issue does not affect everybody. It affects nearly 7 crore Indians who filed Income Taxes. It affects each one of you, it affects every Indian that wants, that own a home or wants to own a home in the future and want to invest their savings.

In this budget, effectively, through removal of indexation and increase in capital gains taxes, these taxes of salaried professionals went up dramatically. Already, the middle class and salaried professionals are bearing the brunt of taxation under the Narendra Modi government because for the first time in India, under this government, total Income Taxes paid by the middle-class individuals are higher than total taxes paid by rich corporates. So, there were huge protest on social media and even in cities like Mumbai, where there were some business events, professionals started to protest spontaneously. This is almost unheard of in India. The All-India Professionals Congress and the Congress Party launch the campaign to #BringBackIndexation with a petition asking people to sign. Nearly, 12,000 people signed this petition in just one day after the launch. Yesterday, the government of India announced a rollback of the indexation. The government of India listened and brought back indexation for property gains by giving individuals the option to continue with indexation benefits. We welcome this. This is a victory to the 7-crore people in India that file Income Taxes, but this is not enough. We urge the government to allow indexation benefits for other forms of savings too such as stocks, debt, fixed deposits and so on. But more importantly, this is a sign of middle-class power and the power of democracy. When professionals come together and raise their voice, it will be heard. This is also proof of what a strong opposition and a concerted and united effort can achieve for the people of India. The AIPC will continue to raise issues that impact the middle class, working professionals. Wednesday, August 7, 2024