Covid cess or tax deduction? What Budget 2021 has in store for taxpayers

The Budget 2021 is much awaited from taxpayers' point of view, who expect COVID-19-linked relief in income tax for the financial year 2020-21. Saraswathi Kasturirangan, Partner, Deloitte India expects the government to announce some tax deductions on expenses that the employees may have incurred during work-from-home such as phone bills or utility costs. Speaking to Business Today's Aprajita Sharma, Kasturirangan also talked about how the tax relief under section 87-A needs a revision, if tweaking the income tax slab structure is not an option. She made a case for offering some tax exemptions under the new tax regime and cautioned a COVID-19 cess, beyond health & education cess, of 4 per cent would not be a great idea. Watch the video for more.