The Union Budget 2025-26 tabled in the parliament on Saturday was a pleasant surprise for the middle class and the salaried professionals with the increase in income tax exemption. The Free Press Journal had asked families of common people about their expectations from the union budget and revisited them to know their reactions post the budget. While much of the varied suggestions shared by these Mumbaikars were not met, the praises for exemption from income tax overshadowed other expectations.
Income Tax Revision, Credit Guarantee Impressive But Capital Gains Tax Disappoints
Mulund-based Velji Bauva (72), a retired businessman, had reflected that the taxes laid on mediclaim should be lifted to make healthcare affordable for everyone. Although the taxes were not lifted, Bauva said that the relief in income tax will help the middle class to save money for medical purposes. He still believes that the government should consider making health insurance tax-free in the near future.
Bauva also applauded the government’s move to provide health insurance to 1 crore gig workers under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana. “The government should focus on providing more benefits to senior citizens as we have paid taxes our entire life. At this age, we can survive without money if the government offers such benefits for us. Restoring the railway concession for senior citizens is long overdue but saw no mention in today’s budget,” he added.
Bauva’s elder son Praful (42), who runs a mobile shop did not have high hopes from the budget but appreciated the relief in income tax. He said that the changes should have been done long ago. While his expectation of some incentives for physical businesses to sustain themselves against e-commerce was not fulfilled, he believed that the finance minister’s announcement of a credit guarantee cover for micro and small enterprises will be beneficial to small businesses.
“The guarantee limit for micro, small and medium enterprises has also been increased from Rs5 crore to Rs10 crore. This will help small and medium scale businesses to expand their business and clear their debts,” Praful said.
Praful’s younger brother Chetan (39), who works at a saree showroom had expected relief in taxes laid on capital gains, which was not fulfilled. However he appreciated the relief in income tax and said that he was expecting tax-free income to be raised till Rs10 lakhs per annum but was surprised to see it extended till Rs12 lakhs.
Praful’s son Darshil (22), who has just graduated and trying his career as a mutual funds distributor had suggested that the taxes on stock market profits should be decreased to attract more youth towards stock market. Although his expectation was not fulfilled, he said that the relief in income tax would allow people to invest more.
“While the government has increased tax on the capital gains for foreign individual investors, it could have decreased the tax for Indian investors. However, the relief in income tax will benefit every salaried person. Moreover, the reduction in highest tax slab from 35% to 30% will be beneficial for high earning individual,” he added.
No mention about Mumbai or Maharashtra Disappointing
Borivali based architect Gopal Jhaveri (52) was disappointed as the budget failed to provide any benefit to Mumbai or Maharashtra. He had suggested that the government should allocate significant amount for the upgradation of Mumbai’s suburban railway and to make the city slum-free. He said that apart from the relief in income tax, the government has not focused on areas which fall in people’s everyday needs.
“Maharashtra gave an unexpected majority to the Bharatiya Janata Party in the assembly elections but it was surprising that it ignored the state. There was a lot of allocation that was diverted towards Bihar and other states where there allies have formed the government. Slums, environment and the railways have been overlooked in the budget,” he added.
Jhaveri’s daughter Pearl (20) who is a political science student appreciated the government’s move to provide loans upto Rs2 crore for women entrepreneurs. She believes that the move will help more women, specially housewives and widows, who are not highly educated, to start their own businesses and became independent. “I also expected that a new AIIMS hospital would be announced for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. It is understandable that every need cannot be fulfilled in a single budget but it should be looked after in the future,” she said.
Her twin brother Parth, who is a student of computer science engineering, had a mix reaction about the budget. He appreciated government’s spending for artificial intelligence but said that he expected more allocation towards space technology. “Rs13,415 crore of budget for the space sector is impressive amount and a significant part has also been earmarked for capital outlay on research. However, the government should have focused on setting up new institutes for studies related to astronomy and astrophysics. I would give this budget a 6.5 out of 10.”
Real Estate Sector Disappointed But Salaried Class Happy
Cuffe Parade-based Vicky Punjabi (58) had said that the heavily taxed real estate sector should get relief from variety of taxes like GST, property tax, stamp duty, LUC tax and company tax among others. He said that there were no benefits for the real estate sector in this budget. Although the government announced an amendment to provide tax relief on two homes instead of one, Punjabi believes that it will not help the sector in general.
“Nobody buys two houses with the same name. Usually a family with multiple members have multiple homes registered under different names. This will help high networth individuals but not the real estate sector. Although the budget was specifically focused on the middle class this time. The rural spending has been increased which will be fruitful for the overall economy of the country,” he added.
His wife Sapna (54), a finance sector professional, had high hope on relief in income tax and expressed contentment over increase in tax-free slabs. She said that the rationalisation of income tax, which was long overdue, has been done in a meaningful way that it will leave some surplus funds in the hands of common people.
“All these years we have only seen our finance minister increase taxes but this is for the first time that she has actually provided something to the middle class. We had not seen benefits coming to the middle income group. This income tax revision will also act as a multiplier effect as people would be able to consume more and take more loans. Overall, the focus was also on the ease of doing business and was also beneficial for the manufacturing industry,” she said.
Their son Naren (27), who also looks after their family business, said that the budget was good but not great. He had suggested that the government should focus on the field of artificial intelligence without spending much on research and development of new technologies. “The government has allotted Rs2,000 crore towards AI and Rs500 crore particularly to set up a Centre for Excellence in AI. The amount is not much but is still according to the need of the sector. Niche industries like shipbreaking has been benefitted whereas major sectors have been overlooked,” he added.
