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DTC for gender equality
The potential revenue loss from exemptions has forced the government to scrimpon the hikes in the threshold levels of personal income tax. Yet the govt hasestimated a revenue loss of over 15,000 cr THE PROPOSED NEW DIRECT TAXES LAW will take away the special treatment that womenhave so far enjoyed and force individuals to overhaul the way in which they plan theirsavings.
Women will be put on the same footing as men. Tax-free savings schemes will be fewer,with the government knocking off many from the among the 16 odd available now. DTC hasbeen cleverly packaged. The total amount of amount of tax deduction that will be availableto individuals, including interest on housing loans will be around 3 lakh, roughly the same asnow.
“The new Bill has only tinkered at the fringes, with no significant benefits for the aam admi.
The re-packaging of the savings schemes will significantly lower the savings potential”, saidSandip Mukherjee, executive director, PwC. “The exemption of 2 lakhs is four time the percapita income, which is a generous limit,” countered a senior tax department official. Themaximum a person can save on her tax burden is 24,000 and that too if she earns morethan 8 lakh a year.
The door on the tax breaks front has been shut for the principal amount paid on homeloans, bank deposits, equity linked savings schemes of mutual funds, national savingscertificate, infra bonds and unit linked pension plans.
The government has, however, opened a new window, empowering itself to notify schemesfor tax breaks and exempting such schemes from tax at all three stages — contribution,accumulation and withdrawals. This means pension schemes on a unit linked platform couldstage a backdoor entry. The other big blow is scrapping the incentives on leave travelallowance and home travel concession. Only long term savings schemes such as the publicprovident fund, new pension scheme, recognised provident funds will qualify for the taxdeduction of 1 lakh under what is now called Section 80 C of the Income Tax Act and beexempt from tax at all stages. The move to allow an exempt exempt exempt (EEE) methodof tax treatment will help individuals build a retirement nest as the country does not have asocial security net, reckon officials.
Expenses on tuition fees, pure life insurance premia and health insurance too will qualify fortax benefits, but within an overall limit of 50,000 a year. On top of this, individuals willcontinue to enjoy a tax-deduction of upto 1.5 lakh on the interest they pay on home loans.
Political expediency has prevailed over economic logic to retain the incentive. Loans for higher education will also be tax free. But there really no extra benefit for a tax payer onboth these counts.
A J Majumdar, Former Member CBDT and senior consultant with Ernst and Young said thegovernment need not have been liberal with tax exemptions for the middle class. “A taxrelief of 4,000 by raising the exemption limit to 2 lakh does not mean much to thissegment. The revenue loss was avoidable.” The savings for 3.5 crore taxpayers in thecountry would have been substantially higher had the government accepted the tax slabsproposed in the original DTC. The new Bill, placed in Parliament on Monday, marks asignificant departure from the original code that promised structural changes to endexemptions and broaden the tax base.
The potential revenue loss from exemptions has forced the government to scrimp on thehikes in the threshold levels of personal income tax. Yet the government has estimated arevenue loss of over 15,000 crore just on widening the slabs.
Source : The Economic Times/ 31st August, 2010

Source: http://www.icai.org/resource_file/20349news_dtc_cpfga.pdf