A salaried employee's letter to the finance minister

Sir, my first request is to increase the tax slabs significantly. The current entry level slab and the gap between the higher levels are too low. Today a carpenter or electrician asks 750 rupees a day as minimum wage. This means that he will make 15,000 rupees even if he works for 20 days in a month. He goes without taxes or TDS. On the other hand, if a salaried person touches a slab of 1.8 lakh rupees per annum, he is taxed on his income.

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Please increase the initial slab for income tax to 5 lakh rupees or make it at least 3 lakh rupees. Also, let the higher slabs have significant gap between them. As history has proven earlier, if paying taxes is not as painful, more people will voluntarily pay their taxes. This in turn will lead to higher revenues to the government.

The creation of a separate slab for senior citizens will be highly appreciated.

Sir, please consider increasing the volume of investments qualifying for the tax benefits. The limit of 1 lakh rupees for tax savings is archaic, which was implemented almost 10 years ago. An increase up to 3 lakh rupees under Section 80C and 3 lakh rupees for housing loan interest will be appreciated.

Please do not think that I am asking for these jumps in the tax benefits slabs out of greed. I am only bringing to your notice the current reality of high costs. Even if we buy a house with 2 bedrooms and 850 square feet of usable space (1000 square feet is what my builder bills us for), we have to spend about 30 lakh rupees.

Service Tax

Sir, the service tax on house construction has hit us hard. Some of us prefer to go with quality and long standing builders. Only these builders charge the service tax. Many new comers and fly-by-night builders do not charge this and show attractive rates for innocent buyers.

The other aspect of this is that the ultimate cost for us to buy houses has gone up significantly. As end users, we cannot pass this burden on to others. So please consider removing the service tax on house construction.

Expenses as deduction


Sir, similar to businesspeople, please consider a few necessary expenses for the salaried such as mobile phone bills and actual office commuting cost (fuel, vehicle maintenance expenses, bus/train fare) as deductable expenses for the salaried. Cost of buying mobile phone and laptops and 3G data card should also be made deductable from income. In this modern work environment, all these gadgets have become necessary for the salaried employees.