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Budget 2020-21: Women's take, it is time for a budget that is Middle Class friendly & start-up supportive

Dealing with multiple facets of economy from education to everyday groceries, women whether working in firms or homemakers, often take care of household budgets. There is a hope among most Indoreans that this time, the Union Budget for financial year 2020-21, will consider the working class and salaried employees.
 Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting her second budget in Parliament on February 1. As the entire country gears up for the upcoming financial year, homemakers, professionals, entrepreneurs and start-up founders are praying for a considerate budget, especially for women.
Last year, most women were disappointed with the Budget presenting hike in petrol and diesel prices. Further, there being no major change in tax slab, women are expecting the budget to provide major relief this year.
“The sad reality is that even last year, the budget did not consider the hard working middle class of the society and if this continues, then a major part of working population will suffer again,” homemaker Khushi Kapoor said.
She explained that hiking prices of basic commodities without any substitutes forces most people to struggle for good quality life. “It is great that the country is promoting green energy, but just hiking prices of everything is not going to work, we need a positive budget that promotes the innovation and at least provides enough relief for fast moving consumer goods (FMCG),” homemaker Sindhu Jaisinghani said.
She added that there is a dire need to promote women power for attaining goals like sustainable development, make in India, etc. “To promote, we need to empower and support entrepreneurs with tax relief and investment supports,” Sindhu said.
Following are some other highlights and selected opinions of women in Indore, quoting their expectations from the Budget 2020-21.
Promote & Support Women
“1. Corporate should be enforced through government schemes and programmes to have balanced gender ratio in order to promote women to come forward in jobs and become financially independent.
2. Women safety should be one of the underlying areas where govt need to pour in funds.
3. Single Window system for women entrepreneurs should be there to give them easy access to funds and compliance support for their start-ups.
4. Grants should be given for female education till graduation which will educate and empower more females.”
Shruti Vincent
Baker
Education & Protection
“My expectations from the forthcoming Budget 2020 are relief to the Income tax payers. The Government should increase the Income Tax exemption limit to a minimum of Rs 7 lakh and reduce the tax slab to 5 % up to 10 lakh. Individual investment in savings Schemes should be promoted by raising the limit of deduction under 80 C to 2.5 lacs.
Education loan process should be simplified for the advantage of underprivileged groups. With the new education policy expected in the near future, I hope the Budget will have more schemes designed to make Education more accessible to all and on improving of education at Primary and Secondary level.
Further the GST rates seriously need a review for downward revision to enhance purchasing power for kitchen and other essential household commodities. Special fund should be created to make provision for more safety of women on road and at work places and rules be framed accordingly.”
Keran Bahadur
Chairperson
Colonel’s Academy, Mhow
Increase tax limit for Women
“| hope in forthcoming budget there would be relaxation for middle class families over house hold products .Income tax limit should also be raised up to 5,00,000 at least and up to 8-10 lakhs for female entrepreneurs for motivating and appreciating them. Budget provision should be made for Anti- Evil committee, kind of things for women safety.”
Gollo Chhabra
Homemaker
Schemes for Households
“Income tax slab should be increases tax free earning should be raised to 10 lakh. To promote household saving some tax relief schemes should be introduced for household expenditure.
If there are measures for the taxpayers to have more money in hand then there will be more savings as well as increase in demand in consumption which will be good for overall growth of economy.”
Chaitali Majumdar
Educator
Basic for People & Economy
Tax free pension for pensioners and special benefits for senior citizens.
GST reduction in automobile and pharmaceutical sector
Tax benefits for people working on social and environmental start-ups
Sudha Awasthi
Retired banker
State Bank of India
Ease of living 
“A salaried woman ends up paying so much tax that at the end of the year one wonders where the salary actually went! I look forward to a budget which hikes the income tax exemption limit to improve the ease of living of the salaried class. Secondly, if the price of diesel and petrol are brought down to some extent, it would provide a big relief to common man.”
Raminder Mac
Dean
International affairs at a private school
Middle-class friendly
“We expect a middle class friendly budget. The tax slab for working women should be increased till 9 lakh. The process for beneficiaries under ‘Ayushmann Bharat’ should be simplified. Education sector needs a boost with impetus on skill based, cost effective and purposeful education. The Budget for Defence should grow to safe guard our country. Ease of working in Govt banking should be there as it is very complicated as for now.”
Sangeeta Uppal
Principal of a private CBSE school
Promote investments & growth
“Income up to 5 lakhs should be free from any tax liability and 5-10 lakh the tax rate should be reduced to 5%. This will help to middle class families for better living qualities.
Capital gain taxes on equity and mutual funds should be waved off, so that citizens more and more invest on this, which help to generate more govt funds.”
Soumya Upadhyaya
Businessperson
Allotment for women safety
“I would love to see the budget for ‘Solo Travel’, which is the biggest trend of the season and the government should make proper security arrangements for women travellers. They can create a travel app that helps travellers stay safe. I travel a lot due to my work profession. Also, there should be a budget for women's safety at night and government should increase night patrolling. This will make women feel more secure even at night. Fast track case system for the rapes and acid attack victims should also consider in this budget session 2020.”
Sadaf Shaikh
Clinical Research Scientist
Supportive of technological development
“I was blessed with second baby girl recently and I would like to see schemes of govt for daughters for the middle-class family like the exemption in school fee for the daughters in private school and colleges. Budget should increase for a special department in hospital for female related diseases. More technologically advanced solutions are expected to be introduced in areas of women safety in both urban and rural areas across the country. Hence, we need support for technological advancements as well. At the same time, existing solutions like mobile SOS, camera surveillance in public transport, and all-women patrols need to be made more pervasive and widely used.”
Minaz Shaikh
Homemaker

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