Personal Finance expert Mrin Agarwal rates Budget 2021

• Follow

In Budget 2021, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed many measures expected to revive the battered economy.

Money9 spoke to financial expert Mrin Agarwal, who rated this budget 8.5 out of 10.

Let’s take a look at what are her takeaways:

1) Depositors will have access to the Deposit Insurance Fund much before a bank gets into liquidation: This means that if a stressed bank has been put under a moratorium, depositors will not have to wait for the bank to go under liquidation in order to access the Deposit Guarantee Insurance Fund.

2) There was no wealth-tax or Covid cess that was introduced, which was good.

3) Detailed pre-filled tax forms will be available now along with capital gains and dividends as well.

4) As far as senior citizens are concerned, they don’t need to file Income Tax returns if their income is only from pension and interest income.

5) I think as far as investors are concerned, a big positive was that ULIPs, where the premium is above Rs 2.5 lakhs, are going to be taxed as equity mutual funds and so they come on par with mutual funds.

A negative point for me in the budget was the fact that if an employee contributes more than Rs 2.5 lakhs to Provident Funds (so this would be applicable maybe for people who are contributing to VPF), then the interest is not going to be tax-free for them. So it certainly will impact people investing in VPF.

Overall, the budget was good as it was growth-oriented and also it did not increase any taxes. The disappointment was only the EPF part.