Referring to the Section 80C of the Income Tax Act, under which individual taxpayers are entitled for income tax deductions on investments up to a maximum limit of Rs.1 lakh, there is not a single Shari’ah compliant tax saving instrument available in the country. This forces the practising Muslims to stay away from the tax saving opportunity, thus resulting in the loss of opportunity of saving as high as Rs. 33000. The Finance Minister did announce during his budget speech that they are coming out with a Rajiv Gandhi Equity Savings Scheme (which had shades of Shari’ah compliance) but no development has taken place since the announcement. Similarly, the Life Insurance & Medical Insurance products available in market are also not Shari’ah-compliant and thus exclude a huge section of the Islam-abiding citizens from the safety cover. Finance Ministry must try and figure out ways of ensuring financial inclusion of Muslims by providing them with Shari’ah-compliant products.
Sohel Sachora
Anand, Gujarat