wishlist

Remove cap on investment under section 80C.
Tax planning is a coherent part of any financial plan. Everybody, whether salaried or a businessman, is interested in minimising his tax liability. The Income Tax Act allows certain deductions while calculating taxable income. At present the maximum amount of deduction available under section 80C in different categories of investments is Rs 100,000 only. This has to be enhanced to Rs. 5 lakhs so that people who are capable of investing in National Saving Certificates, Pension Plans, Bank FD's, Public Provident Fund, Life Insurance, Employees' Provident Fund etc will be able to minimize his tax liability. Ultimately the invested amount is utilizing by the Government for a particular period. This definitely will be a contribution by the tax payers to the growth of the nation. Removing the cap on investment under section 80C minimize the tax liability and will stimulate the saving habit of the individual.
The standard deduction which was withdrawn some time ago has to be restored since all the earnings including the dearness allowance of a salaried class is taxed. The business class can minimize their tax liability by way of depreciation and expenses. Similar facility is not available for salaried class.
At present upper limit of the gratuity amount is Rs. 3.5 lakhs as per the gratuity act. This limit was fixed years back and no revision was considered in spite of the continuously increasing cost of living. Raising the ceiling on tax-free gratuity will give some relief to the retired employees and will be a stimulus package to them who are not having any social security benefit. It is to be noted that many of the retiring employees are losing huge amount due to the upper ceiling of the gratuity amount in the gratuity act.

K.V.Aravindakshan,
Manager(IA),KMML

Brief profile:
I am working as Manager (Internal Audit) in a public sector undertaking, The Kerala Minerals and Metals Limited, Kollam, Kerala. I have 33 years of working experience in the different filed like porduction planning, EDP, Finance and Internal Audit.