There have been a plethora of suggestions and requests for various changes in the budget, both on the revenue and expenditure sides, before it is formally announced on the 1st of February. This is expected given that every constituency would like to derive some benefit from the budget. This can be lower tax payments by individuals and companies or higher expenditure outlays by the government in different sectors.

This is understandable given that the country is going through a fairly anomalous situation. India is the fastest growing economy, which means that we are doing much better than any other large country. Yet, there are concerns voiced on consumption and investment. Therefore, every advocacy group has something to ask from the government. Not surprisingly, post-budget there will also be a call for lowering of the repo rate.

But there are certain things that the budget can do that will involve only marginal administrative costs but can deliver a lot on ease for the entire tax paying community. There could be some changes made to ensure that paying taxes should become easier for the public by using the advanced digital technology architecture already in place. Let us see how this can work out.

The government has made a lot of progress in generating what are called forms 26 AS as well as the AIS for the taxpayers. The first one captures all income earned where there is a tax paid by the individual. The........

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