Nirmala Sitharaman, the Union Finance Minister presented the Indian Union Budget for 2023-24. Here are the key features.
Key highlights of the Indian Union Budget
On Wednesday, Nirmala Sitharaman, the finance minister presented the union budget of the nation. She began the speech by stating the “world has recognized India as a bright star” and added that India is recording healthy economic growth despite the prevailing uncertainties. Since taking over as the Finance Minister in July 2019, Sitharaman is presenting her fifth full budget. The country is growing at seven percent in the current fiscal and is the highest among significant economies of the world. “Indian economy has increased in size from being the 10th to 5th largest in last nine years,” she stated in her speech. She added that the per capita income rose to 1.97 INR.
“Our focus on reforms and sound policies resulting in ‘Jan Bhagidari’ helped us in trying times, our rising global profile is due to several accomplishments,” she stated. Sitharaman also fixed the fiscal deficit at 5.9 percent for 2023-24. Additionally, she restated that this would be brought down to under 4.5 percent by 2025-26.
Income tax slabs revised under the new regime
This year’s union budget brings good news to taxpayers as the tax rebate limit increases from 5 lakhs INR to 7 lakhs INR. Additionally, the government also announced a change in Income Tax slabs. “I introduced in 2020, the new personal income tax regime with six income slabs, starting from Rs 2.5 lakh. I propose to change the tax structure in this regime by reducing the number of slabs to 5 and increasing the tax exemption limit to Rs 3 lakh,” she revealed.
Following the union budget for 2023-24, salaried individuals, pensioners, and family pensioners need not pay income tax for income up to 7.5 lakh INR. The new regime proposes a rise in rebates under section 97A. Hence, those with income up to 7 lakhs INR need not pay taxes. The maximum rebate under section 87A is hiked from 125,000 INR to 250,000 INR under the new regime.
Revised tax slabs under the new tax regime
— Income of Rs 0-3 lakh is nil.
— Income above Rs 3 lakh and up to Rs 5 lakh to be taxed at 5%
— Income of above Rs 6 lakh and up to Rs 9 lakh to be taxed at 10%
— Income above Rs 12 lakh and up to Rs 15 lakh to be taxed at 20%
— Income above Rs 15 lakh to be taxed at Rs 30%