When the middle class takes centre stage

While the tax slabs may be reasonable, many exemptions have become anachronisms - they don't reflect the reality when we take into consideration the cost of inflation

Typically, ahead of the Union Budget, this column deals with the likely government borrowing in the next financial year and its impact on bond yields. Instead of walking the well-trodden path, let me focus on something else.

The provocation is Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s recent comment: “I belong to the middle class and identify myself as middle class so that I can understand them. The Modi government has not levied any new tax on the middle class in any Budget so far. No tax levied on people who earn a salary up to Rs 5 lakh.”

Ever since she made