Focus was growth, manufacturing & jobs revival: FinMin

The Government on Saturday said that Budget 2014-15 has brought about clarity in tax policies and it will walk the difficult path to bring growth impulses back into the economy amidst fiscal constraints. ‘Both on direct and indirect tax side, the main focus of the Government was to revive growth, to revive the manufacturing sector, to take steps that will result in the creation of jobs, go in for tax rationalisation, reduce tax litigations and ambiguity in policies,’ Revenue Secretary Shaktikanta Das said.

At the post-budget interaction with industry chamber Ficci, Das said that the Budget has sought to bring in greater clarity in taxation policy. In his maiden Budget presented in Parliament on July 10, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has tried to provide relief to the middle class by increasing tax exemption limit by Rs 50,000 to Rs 2.50 lakh. It also hiked deduction limit for investments in financial instruments under 80C by Rs 50,000 to Rs 1.50 lakh.

The Budget contains several proposals to boost the manufacturing sector apart from assurance 

that government will not ‘ordinarily’ bring about any change retrospectively which creates a fresh ‘liability’ or tax demand.