Not alluring enough?

Ranchi, July 6: Mobile phones and LCD TVs have become cheaper but the fair sex is not interested. Branded jewellery, sports and leather products and footwear will cost less, yet they are not smiling.

Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has clearly failed to impress the women of the state with his tax relief sops. They had expected more.

Struggling to cut down expenses and plan a balanced family budget every month, they had wanted the Centre to address more urgent concerns such as the rising prices of essential commodities. But the Union budget has disappointed them on this point.

“The items on which taxes have been either reduced or not increased have little use for the homemakers. Prices of food items have jacked up considerably in the past few months. We had expected the finance minister to address the issue. But nothing has been done to help women run households,” Poonam Anand, the executive member of Federation of Jharkhand Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said.

The finance minister has reduced custom duty on LCD panels from 10 to 5 per cent. Similarly, custom duty on nine life-saving drugs used for treatment of breast cancer, hepatitis B and rheumatics has been slashed from 10 to 5 per cent. Tax on medical equipment, paper and paperboards, too, has not been increased.

While tax on branded jewellery has been brought down from 2 per cent to nil, prices of food items such as biscuits, sherbet, cakes and pastries have not been increased. But on other food items, the tax has been raised from 4 to 8 per cent. Cars for the physically handicapped will continue to carry a tax of only four per cent.

“The decision to reduce tax on LCD panels means little to the homemakers. LCD TV is a luxury that is bought once in a lifetime. And a very few people will actually get the benefit of the tax cut, that too marginally,” Anand said.

She further pointed out that the decision to reduce tax on branded jewellery and not to increase the same on footwear, leather products, life saving drugs et al does not merit much appreciation.

Echoing the disappointment, Soni Mehta, a Ranchi-based entrepreneur, said: “Housewives had wanted more from the finance minister. But their aspirations have not found a good hearing. Pranab Mukherjee should have done some thing that could have benefited a larger section of household population.”

Homemaker Shipra Sahay agreed: “The budget has no good news for us.”