This means that everyone under the tax bracket of Rs 50 lakh stands to gain Rs 12,500 tax benefit in the coming year.
In a major step, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced the reduction of the existing rate of taxation for individuals with income ranging between Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh to 5% instead of 10%. There will be a surcharge of 10% for those whose annual income is Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore. Additionally, the 15% surcharge on Rs 1 crore or more remains unchanged. This is to make up for Rs 15,000 crore loss due to the cut in the personal income tax rate.
“This would reduce the tax liability of all persons below Rs 5 lakh income either to zero (with rebate) or 50% of their existing liability. In order not to have duplication of benefit, the existing benefit of rebate available to the same group of beneficiaries is being reduced to Rs 2500 available only to assessees up to the income of Rs 3.5 lakhs. The combined effect of both these measures will mean that there would be zero tax liability for people getting income up to Rs 3 lakhs p.a. and the tax liability will only be Rs 2,500 for people with income between Rs 3 and Rs 3.5 lakhs,” the finance minister said in his budget.
“If the limit of Rs 1.5 lakh under Section 80C for investment is used fully, the tax would be zero for people with income of Rs 4.5 lakhs. While the taxation liability of people with income up to Rs 5 lakhs is being reduced to half, all the other categories of taxpayers in the subsequent slabs will also get a uniform benefit of Rs 12,500 per person. The total amount of tax foregone on account of this measure is Rs 15,500 crores,” he said.