Govt should've revoked passports of super rich leaving India instead of giving them tax relief: Swadeshi Jagran Manch

The Swadeshi Jagran Manch has expressed dissatisfaction over lowering of income tax rate applicable on high-net-worth individuals, saying the government should have revoked passports of the super rich leaving the country citing higher tax rate instead of giving them such a relief.

SJM co-convenor Ashwani Mahajan noted that the Union Budget 2023-24, presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament on Wednesday, proposed to reduce the income tax rate from the current 42.74 per cent to 39 per cent applicable on high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) in a bid to stop them from leaving the country.

Many people are leaving the country due to various reasons, saying we will work in some other country because tax rates are high here,? Mahajan said.

The government has proposed to provide relief to this segment of tax payers in a bid to stop them from leaving the country, he said.

If I were the finance minister, I would have asked the prime minister to first stop all these super rich from leaving the country and revoke their passports," Mahajan said in an exclusive video interview to PTI.

The co-convenor of Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) said the government should not let these high-net-worth individuals, who have left the country due to the tax rate applicable on them, return to India ever.

India has to be taken on the path of progress. We do not have to make such people a part of India's growth story,? he added.

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The finance minister on Wednesday announced that no tax would be levied on annual income of up to Rs 7 lakh under the new tax regime. She also allowed a Rs 50,000 standard deduction to taxpayers under the new regime, where assessees cannot claim deductions or exemptions on their investments.

The finance minister also tweaked the concessional tax regime by hiking the tax exemption limit by Rs 50,000 to Rs 3 lakh and reducing the number of slabs to five.

Mahajan appreciated the tweaking of the two tax regimes and said the government has offered some relief to middle class taxpayers, but more was possible?.

He hailed the government's proposal to hike capital expenditure by 33 per cent to Rs 10 lakh crore for infrastructure development for 2023-24 and said the finance ministry's proposal to increase the Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana (PMAY) outlay to Rs 79,000 crore and the agriculture credit target to Rs 20 lakh crore will give a push to rural employment.

We can consider such measures as those to be bringing efficiency in the economy,? he added.

The SJM co-convenor defended the government over reduction in funds earmarked for the rural job guarantee scheme, MGNREGA, in 2023-24, saying the budgetary provisions for the programme are made by the Centre based on demands from the states.

It has been seen that demand for jobs under the scheme has fallen due to availability of other options,? Mahajan said.

The Ministry of Rural Development has been allocated Rs 1,57,545 crore in the Union Budget for 2023-24, around 13 per cent less than the estimated expenditure made by the ministry in the current fiscal.

The allocation for the flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme (MGNREGS) too has been cut by almost one-third. The finance ministry has earmarked Rs 60,000 crore for the implementation of the scheme in 2023-24, almost 32 per cent lesser than revised estimates for last fiscal.

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