By Rajan Narayan

AND a few stray thoughts for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when the Union budget for 2024-2025 did not provide any major relief for the middle class. For a Saturday following the week when the con game of the budget creates more jobs. For a Saturday following the week when the impression was created that mobiles have become cheaper. For a Saturday following the week when the Supreme Court finally deciding that there will not be a fresh test for the 13 lakh NEET students
AND a few stray thoughts on the Union budget for 2024-2025 not providing any major relief for the middle class. I am inclined to define the middle class as people with an income between Rs10-Rs20 lakh in a year. Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget does not even offer a crumb to the poorest sections of Indian society. Only those with an income up to Rs3 lakh per year are exempted from income-tax.
An income of Rs3 lakh implies an average salary of only Rs25,000 a month. Above Rs3 lakh up to Rs7 lakh, the tax rate is 5%. Between Rs7-Rs9 lakh it is 10% going up to 15% for those in the Rs10-Rs15 lakh. Above Rs15 lakh the tax rate will continue to be 30%. The standard deduction has only been increased by Rs25,000 from Rs50,000-Rs75,000. The tax saving is only Rs7,500.
What you might gain from the marginal increase in standard reduction you could lose due to the increase in capital gains. There is a capital gain starts of 15% if you sell any asset from shares to your house. You are likely to lose heavily on the sale of property which has been held by you for more than two years. This is because the adjustment for inflation permitted till recently has now been withdrawn. This means that earlier you could sell your property at a huge premium on the amount you purchased it for. If you bought a flat even ten years ago for Rs15 lakh you could sell it for Rs70 lakh to Rs80 lakh without paying a fortune in taxes. Capital gains tax was imposed on the difference between sale price and the inflation-adjusted value of the property. Even though you may have bought the property for Rs10 lakhs.
Adjusted for inflation the property will be valued at Rs50-Rs60 lakh. Now without the benefit of indexing, you will be taxed on the difference in the price between the rate at which you brought the property and the rate at which you sold the property. The only way to avoid capital gain is to buy a new property immediately after selling the old one. This is still value for money as in the current real-estate market you can sell Rs10 lakh property bought in 2010 for Rs80 lakh now. If you spend another Rs20 lakh you can move to a new property in a better area.

CON GAMES
AND a few stray thoughts on the con game of the budget creating more jobs. Among the so-called highlights of the budget is the scheme for creating four crore new jobs in private companies. The FM proposes to do this by subsidizing the top corporate houses to the extent of Rs15,000 to be paid for interns. Interns are a separate category and not to be confused with trainees or apprentices. Interns are supposed to learn or upgrade their skills on the job.
The government may be able to force major corporates like Tata Motors or INFOSYS and WIPRO to hire 5,000-10,000 interns each. The internship period is only for one year. There is no guarantee that the interns will be given permanent jobs by the companies which hire them. After the one-year internship, the young people will again be unemployed. All that the new employment scheme will do is provide temporary relief for one year for the unemployed.

MOBILES CHEAPER?
AND a few stray thoughts on the impression created that mobiles have become cheaper. The reality is that only expensive imported mobiles like the iPhone will become marginally cheap. The fall in the price of mobiles is because of the reduction in the customs duty from 20% to 15%. If the manufacturers of the iPhone pass on the benefit to customers the price will come down by Rs5,000 for the iPhone Pro.
Those who buy ordinary iPhones will not benefit as they are made in India. There will be no reduction in the price of smartphones made in India. Most Indian women will be happy because gold and silver will be cheaper. This is again because of the reduction in the customs duty on imported gold. Gold is expected to be cheaper by Rs4,000 per 10 grams. However, you will have to pay 1% more tax on luxury goods costing over Rs10 lakh. This will only affect people who have given expensive gifts to Anant Ambani.
Interestingly, there is a wide disparity in the ownership of mobile phones between the richest and the poorest states in the country. Every resident of Delhi has an average of three mobile phones, which is on par with the people of Hong Kong. The number of mobile phones in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh is the same as the world’s poorest country like Somalia in Africa. The tally density which is the number of smartphones related to the population is 280 in Delhi, compared to 77 in Odisha. The density in Kerala is 121 and 114 in Punjab. No figures are given for Goa but I suspect that there are at least two smart phones for every citizen of Goa. This adds up to 30 lakh smart phones for a population of 15 lakh.

NO FRESH NEET
AND a few stray thoughts on the Supreme Court finally deciding that there will not be a fresh test for the 23.33 lakh NEET students. However, the merit list will change again. One of the major problems with the NEET exam is that the National Testing Agency provided two answers for physics question on the atom. There was one answer which was considered right according to the new syllabus. There was a different answer which was approved according to the old syllabus. The testing authority awarded the full five marks to both the answers. This is absurd because in multiple-choice questions there can be only one current answer.
The SC asked the IIT Delhi to decide on the right answer to the question. As a result of the latest SC decision four lakh students who gave the wrong answer will lose five marks. The decks have now been cleared for admission to the medical colleges. The most sought-after are the 108 lakh MBBS seats in government medical colleges. The fee in government colleges is much lower than in private medical colleges.
The major problem with the NEET exam is that there is no cut-off percentage for appearing for the NEET medical exam. Even students who have failed in their higher secondary can appear for the NEET exam. Absurdly the girl who got 700 plus of the 720 maximum marks in the NEET exam had failed her HSSC exam in Gujarat. The new NEET merit list is expected to be ready before coming Monday, July 29, 2024. There is no news yet on when the exam for admission to the postgraduate medical courses will begin.’

US ELECTORAL BATTLE
THE electoral battle in the United States is between Tamil Nadu and Telangana. The democratic candidate for the post of American president is Kamala Harris, originally from Tamil Nadu. The wife of the Republican candidate for the vice president job is Usha Chilukuri Vance whose family is originally from Andhra Pradesh.
After the split in Andhra Pradesh Usha Vance has become an export from Telangana. This is the first time that a non-white candidate has been nominated for the post of president in the United States. Kamala Harris became the Democratic choice for president after the 80-year-old Joe Biden retired from the contest. The vice-president running mate of Donald Trump who is expected to win is JD Vance, married to an Indian American lawyer Usha Chilukuri.
Even if Kamala Harris does not win, there is a good chance that Usha Chilukuri Vance may someday become the Indian American First Lady occupying the White House. This is because popular Republican Donald Trump, the presidential candidate slated to win the hot seat of president again in the US of A is all of 80 years old and may not survive a full four-year term as president.
Interestingly, the symbol of the Democratic party is a donkey/jackass whereas that of the Republican party in the USA is an elephant.

INDIA’S OLYMPIC MEDALS
AND a last stray thought on the reason why India does so badly in the Olympics is the lack in incentives for sports in the country, particularly for athletics. The only sport which gets sponsorship is cricket and up to a point football. This is why India with a population of 140 crore cannot get even five gold medals at the Olympics. The only medals that India has been winning are in wrestling and boxing.
The Indian hockey team which used to win a gold medal for several years in the past had to be satisfied with the bronze medal in Tokyo. Though the Olympics is not a professional event the organizers have decided that gold medal winners will get Rs1 crore each.