"My Regret Is...": Ex Finance Minister On New vs Old Tax Regime

Congress leader P Chidambaram on Thursday said that in the "hullabaloo" over the old and the new tax regimes, the importance of personal savings in a developing country has been "jettisoned".

The former Union finance minister asserted that in the absence of a state-provided safety net for the vast majority of people, personal savings is the only social security.

The mystery of the New Tax Regime is unravelling, he said and pointed to the analysis and the tables in major newspapers on Thursday.

"If you are a taxpayer, don't rush to conclusions. Do your math, consult a chartered accountant," Mr Chidambaram said in a series of tweets.

"My regret is, in this hullabaloo about OTR (old tax regime) and NTR (old tax regime), the importance of personal savings in a developing country has been jettisoned," he said.

Mr Chidambaram on Wednesday claimed that the Union Budget has "betrayed" the hopes of a vast majority of Indians and shows how far removed the government is from the people and their concerns about life, livelihood and the growing inequality between the rich and the poor.

At a press conference at the Congress headquarters here, he had termed the budget "callous" and claimed that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has not mentioned unemployment, poverty, inequality or equity anywhere in her Budget speech.