With the general elections less than 100 days away, the Union government has gone for a populist stance in the interim budget 2019. The interim budget, presented by Piyush Goyal, who has been given the charge of the finance ministry following the indisposition of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, has in store a few goodies for the middle-class taxpayers.
As it was widely speculated, burden on the middle-class taxpayers has been eased. Individual taxpayers with income up to Rs 5 lakh will get full tax rebate, that is, they do not have to pay any income tax. The move is expected to provide a benefit of Rs 18,500 crore to three crore middle-class taxpayers.
In addition, he proposed that persons with gross income of up to Rs 6.5 lakh will not have to pay tax for investments. The standard deductions for salaried class was hiked to Rs 50,000 from Rs 40,000. The TDS threshold on bank and post office deposit has been raised from Rs 10,000 to Rs 40,000.
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In addition, the tax payment on notional rent of unused properties will now begin only after two years instead of the previous one-year period.
Income tax in budget 2018
Union budget 2018 had no change in income tax slabs for individuals. However, it accounted for a standard deduction of Rs 40,000 for the salaried for transport and health. Senior citizens, on the other hand, benefited from deduction for health insurance which was raised to Rs 50,000.
