Hyderabad: Dal, edible oil prices set to go up

Hyderabad: The prices of pulses and edible oil are slated to go up by five to ten per cent in the coming days, with the Centre imposing tax on pulses. The traders' associations are upset with the neglect of the retail sector in the Union budget.

The Hyderabad and Secunderabad Retail Dealers' Association general secretary Dilip Pansari said that imposition of taxes on pulses would result in rise in price of dal from Rs 3 to Rs 5 a kg in the market. He said that while promoting bigger industries, the government did not encourage small retailers.

"There is no rebate to small trade which generally provide a lot of employment. The government has not done any good to traders, but at the same time it has not done any bad, which is great news," said Pansari. On the whole, the budget is good. The IT slabs should have been changed, keeping in mind the difficulties during pandemic, he added.

The Hyderabad Kirana Merchants' Association president Lakshminarayan Rathi observed that the government should have provided some relief to the salaried class because if they have some money in their hands they will spend, thereby benefiting businesses. "The middle class and salaried sections have lost most of their savings because of the pandemic. There should have been some relief in the IT slabs so that they could have saved some money. Also money would have rotated," he remarked.

The association president said one good thing that has been done in the Act was the self-assessment provided in GST. Businessmen can give self-assessment. Encouragement for digitalisation is also a good move.

Chartered Accountant Naveen Kumar Agarwal said, as expected, the Finance Minister presented the budget keeping in view the fiscal parameters. It was a close call for FM to maintain the balance of inflow and outflow, without any direct impact of taxes on the general public. In fact, she has done so by privatisation of the insurance sector from where the government is expected to generate revenue for various schemes announced in the Budget, he added

According to Naveen Kumar, the health sector and basic infrastructure were on priority list in the budget. Huge funds were allocated along with easy measures. Modifications in procedural arrears of IT such as changes in tax audit parameters, assessment procedure, procedure for reopening of old cases, relief in advance tax liabilities, constitution of Dispute Resolution Committee are to be welcomed.

He said definition of small companies has been changed from shares capital of Rs 2 crore to Rs.20 crore, which gives relief to many of companies. The most important relief to senior citizens, with only pension and interest income, is exemption from filing IT returns. Start-ups are given reliefs at various levels. The construction and real estate sectors are given various reliefs for their development. "Digital Transactions seem to be a very favourite hot spot form FM wherein much emphasis was given. In a nutshell, it is a welcome digital budget," Naveen Kumar added.