God of small things gives pre-election blessings

Knowing fully well that the ‘pre-election gift’ tag will soon disappear and only the feel-good factors will remain, Jaswant Singh ...

Knowing fully well that the ‘pre-election gift’ tag will soon disappear and only the feel-good factors will remain, Jaswant Singh played the God of Small Things and unwrapped a Rs 10,000 crore mini-budget gift to middle-class and corporate India. Not only will industry and the average consumer be happy, the budget has poured ghee over the already leaping capital market flames, making an even larger section of the investing public happier.

Will this mini-meal mean belly-ache or better health? If we ignore what this may (and then, it may not) do to the overall financial condition of the country and look at only our own small interest, then we have reasons to rejoice. Life is cheaper and easier. Here is how:

1. Saying no to returns. Those with taxable incomes less than Rs 1.5 lakh a year and pensioners need not file returns anymore.

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2. Log-on to file returns. To remove the pain of physical filing of returns, it will now be possible to file returns on-line using digital signatures for salaried taxpayers and professionals like doctors, lawyers and architects.

3. Home loan perks up. Concessional home loan perks given to employees that were earlier taxed at 10 per cent will now attract a tax rate that may be 8 per cent, to keep this in line with the existing interest rate regime.

4. Say cheap hellos. The reduction in import duties on cell phones to 5 per cent and removal of the special additional duty, will make mobile phone handsets cheaper by 8 to 10 per cent. Why buy in the grey market without a guarantee, when it a legit handset now costs the same?

5. Bring home the PC. An 8 per cent duty reduction and 4 per cent special additional duty vanishing, the personal computer will be cheaper by 8 to 12 per cent. So you can buy a better system with the same budget or blow the savings on some DVDs.

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6. Fly even cheaper. With the excise on air turbine fuel halved to 8 per cent and the inland air travel tax of Rs 250 and foreign tax of Rs 500 scrapped, expect airlines to pass on the benefit in a competitive market. Airfares may fall as much as Rs 1,000 per ticket.

7. Cars to go steady. The duty cuts of 10.3 per cent may not be passed on to you as the car companies may use this to absorb the rise in their input costs. So the prices that were slated to rise, may not. But some market grabber may decide to pass on the benefit – watch out for such deals.

8. Happy hours increase. Next time you come back from abroad, you can get two litres of liquor instead of the regulation one litre. Drink up!

9. NRIs can bring even more little bags of gifts. NRIs returning can get more household goods, including washing machines, VCRs, computers, laptops, refrigerators duty free. Duty on other items reduced by half to 15 per cent.

The police said the trio from Chandigarh — Rohan (21), Sumit (22), and Mohit (19) — were dhol players by profession and had procured the weapons due to an old rivalry with local residents.

Suspecting affair, Odisha lecturer assaults wife and her friend, parades them on street

India2 hr ago

A lecturer of Commerce and his associate were arrested for assaulting his wife, garlanding her with slippers and parading her on the road with her male friend. The woman, who has been living separately from her husband, was assaulted and humiliated in public. The incident was recorded and shared on social media. Police have seized evidence and are investigating the matter.

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