Indian Union Budget 2014: Is it Anything Different From Previous Years?

The new Finance Minister of India, Shri Arun Jaitley had already finished his task of reading the budget proposal for 2014-15.

Many of us would not be interested to read the whole thing what he had read out. We know now what it means for us the ordinary individual tax payers. 

Perhaps the business people have to spend some time with their tax lawyers and consultants to understand the implications of taxation affecting their respective business ventures.

For some it could be beneficial, and for some it could mean some loss and problems.

If you are interested, you may have a look in to the whole text of the budget speech of July 10th 2014 by opening it in the Hindu website using this link. 

Unfortunately, the FM has not found it worth while to address the problems of the ordinary individual tax payers to undertake the mandatory e- filing of  the income tax returns that I had written an year ago. 

As with the FM's of the previous UPA regime, he too did not think it prudent to remove some of the ridiculous I-T provisions that got introduced in the earlier years. 

He and his team also did not find it worth while to eliminate the requirements of tax return filing for the salaried class and pensioners. 

Neither there was any thoughts on making some progressive steps by removing the regressive taxation and going for some other progressive methods to raise government income such as the alternatives some financial experts and thinkers have suggested. 

So in short the budget speech of 2014 followed the essential format and frame work of the budget speeches of the past with some changes here and there. It was fundamentally the same as in the previous years!

But perhaps the FM could not have done better than this, given the short time of just a couple of months that he could get to do the work.

To make any drastic changes in the legacy of the existing system, one has to do much painful exertion which most people would not like to do. 

Who would like to antagonize the officers and staff of the ministry and their departments? Change is always painful and cause resistance.