We ask economists, business leaders and tax experts on what they expect from the Budget. But, have you ever asked what do the citizens want? LocalCircles conducted a survey and received more than 80,000 responses from across the country. Here are the key findings:

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On the income tax front, 69 percent respondents said the current limit of Rs 2.5 lakh should be increased to Rs 5 lakh, 18 percent said it should be increased to Rs 3 lakh, 7 percent said it should be kept at Rs 2.5 lakh and only 4 percent said it should be reduced to Rs 2 lakh instead.

When asked which sector should get top allocation, a majority 30 percent put environment on top to combat pollution and waste management, 26 percent said infrastructure and 16 percent said agriculture.

When asked what should the government do to boost consumer spending, 28 percent said a tax rate cut across the board would do the trick while 29 percent said the government should provide a tax cut across the board and incentivise the taxpayer to spend it within a year.

To discuss the findings of the survey, Shereen Bhan spoke to Sachin Taparia, chairman and founder of LocalCircles, a platform that provides information on various issues.

Sachin Taparia said according to the survey citizens want the upcoming union budget to solve environmental problems.

"About 26 percent people said that it should be agriculture and 19 percent or so said infrastructure, but 30 percent citizens from 220 districts of India said it is air, water, and waste management," he said.

On tax reforms, Taparia said: "Leave and travel allowance (LTA) is one area where people have given a lot of inputs and the idea there is that right now the LTA benefit is available in every two years, that can be made each year because there is a section of population who do domestic spend one year and the next year they take a small vacation outside India and so that money is actually going away."

"If we see the Prime Ministers vision, can we all visit 15 destinations by 2022, and to do that if there is an incentive given where this benefit can be taken every year or if multiple trips can be allowed in the same year, people would want that. Plus, if they can take the hotel exemption beyond just the travel exemption, that is also one of the requirements," he added.

Speaking about spurring demand, he said that the citizens expect tax cuts and incentives to spend tax cut. "On spurring demand what people are basically saying is that give us the tax cut but then also give some incentive to spend that tax cut. If that incentive could be that if you spend Rs 50,000 in tourism, whatever is your tax cut basically, in the next 12 months, you will get some kind of rebate in the follow on year," he said.

First Published:Jan 30, 2020 10:52 PM IST