Her budget, or his?

The increase in the threshold limit of tax exemption from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.1 lakh is not a significant relief, especially to the salaried class. But it is something better than nothing.

The increase in the threshold limit of tax exemption from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.1 lakh is not a significant relief, especially to the salaried class. But it is something better than nothing. It would have augured well if the threshold limit was raised to the level that would have kept men on par with women so that the gender discrimination practised for the past couple of years could have been undone. The benefit extended to men would reach the whole family, irrespective of sex.

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KV Seetharamaiah, Hassan

II

The Budget 2007-08 fails to bridge the gap between the ‘shining Indian’ and the ‘starving Indian’. The desires of the common man are ignored and the people who elected their masters are betrayed once again. Although P. Chidambaram has been forced by his Left allies to ban futuristic trading, you cannot expect more than this from a Finance Minister who is under pressure from the IMF, World Bank, and the US.

S Sathiyamoorthy, Nagpur

The ‘Q’ factor

It is believed that the case against Ottavio Quattrocchi is not so strong and his extradition from Argentina is not easy. But why is the government playing hide and seek with a man who is the main beneficiary in the Bofors case? Why can’t the CBI send a team to Argentina to bring him back to India?

The government must come clean on why it is going soft on this issue and spending hard-earned taxpayer’s money.

Bidyut Chatterjee, Faridabad

A flawed policy

The SEZ policy is flawed. This may sow the seeds for large-scale discontent among the people as we see now in Singur and Nandigram in West Bengal. The economic disparities between the haves and have-nots will further deepen. The SEZ route is not the path for India’s development. Even after 60 years

of Independence, why do we ape the policies of other countries? Why are our planners unable to have our own policies rooted in our soil and in our society?

S Kamat, Goa

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