Finally, the budget was presented. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is going to provide many benefits for the middle class people. He gave tax breaks for them in the budget. It was earlier said that there might not be any special benefits for the middle class and government employees. But in the end the Finance Minister made it very convenient for them.
The budget said that those whose income is less than 7 lakh rupees will not have to pay any tax. Besides, the Modi government is going to bring special opportunities for government employees and pensioners. They are going to get their increased dearness allowance before or during the swing. About 65 lakh government employees and 48 lakh pensioners in the country are going to get this benefit.
All these expensive allowances may be announced in early March. But how much it will increase is yet to be determined. Because this DA or dearness allowance is dependent on the increase or decrease in the price of goods. According to sources, the increase in the price of goods is now decreasing. The AICPI index released in December suggests that price increases are now slowing down. It is not yet known how much DA will increase as a result of this.
Last year the AICPI index was rising and so everyone thought that this time DA might increase a lot, it was supposed to increase by around 4%. But now it is really a matter of concern as this index is dropping suddenly. So maybe, their DA may go up to 3% before the swing. If their 3% DA is also increased, the total DA of government employees is now going to go up to 41%. However, the Center has not made any decision on whether or how much the DA will increase at all.