New Delhi: Under pressure from BJP, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has asked Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha to partially rollback some of the "harsh and anti- middle class" tax proposals in the Budget when the Finance Bill comes up for discussion in Lok Sabha on April 26.

The Prime Minister, who had a detailed meeting with Sinha on April 24, is understood to have asked the Finance Minister to restore the 20 per cent income tax rebate on savings for income between Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 5 lakh.

In the Budget for 2002-03, Sinha had proposed to reduce the tax rebate to 10 per cent for this income bracket.

BJP members of Parliament on Apirl 23 had mounted renewed pressure on Sinha to restore the 20 per cent tax rebate besides rollback some of the excise duties slapped on small scale industry.

The BJP national exeuctive held in Goa earlier this month had also adopted an economic resolution in which it had made similar demands for rolling back several of the "anti-middle class" measures in the Budget.

The Finance Minister had repeatedly spoken of the difficult fiscal situation, particularly in the face of the shortfall of over Rs 20,000 crore in revenue collection last year, mainly due to economic slowdown and had highlighted the need for increased revenue generation to pump-prime the economy besides meeting the increased security needs.

But apparently, Prime Minister had favoured partial rollback of withdrawal of benefits under section 88 of the Income Tax Act despite the Finance Ministry making some alternative proposals during the presentation on April 24.

PTI