Budget: Trade unions seek pay parity, higher pensions, social security

New Delhi: Trade union leaders on Monday urged the government to take measures to boost employment and productivity, increase pensions for those covered by the Employees' Pension Scheme, the immediate constitution of the 8th Pay Commission in pre-budget consultations with the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Niranjan Hiranandani, managing director of Hiranandani Group, and Chairman of the National Real Estate Development Council, who attended the pre-budget consultation meeting on Monday said the finance minister's discussions with infrastructure leaders involved affordable housing, expanding rental housing given to industrial workers, giving housing, especially townships infrastructure status, increasing interest deduction for home loans from ₹2 lakh to ₹5 lakh. " Key proposals by industry bodies, who met the finance minister, included expanding presumptive taxation to MSMEs and emerging sectors like data centres and cloud computing, spurring job creation, integrating India into global value chains, and taking measures to boost domestic consumption. "The finance minister and top finance ministry officials meet over 100 leaders from various sectors seeking their inputs in the pre-budget consultation process," a finance ministry official said, under the condition of anonymity.