Suggestions given to Finance Minister for 2020-21 Budget

I gave the following suggestions to the Finance Minister for the Budget 2020-21. You can also give suggestions from https://www.mygov.in/group-issue/inviting-ideas-and-suggestions-union-budget-2020-2021/

I suggest to link income tax slabs and exemptions with inflation.

The income tax slabs have not been increased in proportion to the inflation for a long time. Please link with inflation, so that it would be fair to the people.

Section 80C also has not been increased for a long time. Please link that also to the inflation.

The limit of the food allowance that a company can provide to its employees is set to Rs.50. That was decided more than a decade back and it was not revised till now. You might be knowing that with Rs.50, you cannot get a meal in any decent hotel. Please revise that and link that also with inflation.

Few suggestions on the Indian railways.

Open premium tatkal an hour before the tatkal and make them available at the highest price. The tickets that are not sold can be made available as usual after the tatkal opening. You can include normal tatkal tickets also in the premium tatkal when it is opened an hour before.

Provide waiting list for the premium tatkal at the highest price. If there is any cancellation, first clear the premium tatkal.

By this, during peak time, Indian railways can get Maximum revenue and also those who can afford can travel. As of now, it is becoming pure luck for everyone who is trying for tatkal.

Provide some refund to the cancellation of the confirmed tatkal tickets. Now, there is no refund for the cancellation of the confirmed tatkal tickets, and there is no incentive for the people to cancel them, when they are not going to travel. If we provide small incentive to cancel the ticket, then we can confirm another ticket and railways would get money for that. If you return only 20-30% of the ticket price for confirmed tatkal, it would generate lot of money.

Since, IRCTC is no longer completely owned by Indian Railways/Government any more, it is better to give licensing to multiple private players for booking tickets online with some license fees. With that, Government can get significant money, and also, it is fair from the government's perspective to treat all non-government organizations equally. Now, it is unfairly giving full license to one non-government organization (IRCTC).

Act vs Implementation

Whenever some major incident happens, Government introduces another act and everyone hails the government for that. Life goes on as usual (without much change).

For the recent problems that media is highlighting (Rape and Murder), we don't need another act. We already have too many stringent laws/acts. What we need is efficient implementation.

Before one criticizes police for not acting immediately, we have to see whether police have enough time to deal with all the cases. Most of the time, they are severely under staffed and had to work overtime. Government should increase the no.of police significantly.

The no.of cases is too huge in any court. Government should increase the no.of courts/judges so that, the cases can be closed sooner.

In the recent Disa act introduced by AP Government, if the government tries to solve the case in 30 days, then most of the time, there won't be any punishment, since, to prove someone beyond reasonable doubt requires significant evidence collection and that would take quite some time. When police is under-staffed, they cannot get complete evidence in such less time. When police take more time, it becomes like how it is now (no change).

Without increasing the police/courts/judges and other infrastructure related issues, if the government tries to solve the problems with yet another act, it won't be possible. If they try to solve without increasing the infrastructure, it would cause increase in other types of crimes.

Many times, the real solution is always dull and not exciting.