Union Budget 2024: Top 5 takeaways for salaried persons, job seekers

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday presented the Union Budget 2024-25 during the Monsoon Session of Parliament. Nirmala Sitharaman became the first finance minister to present seven consecutive budget speeches, surpassing former prime minister Morarji Desai’s record of six consecutive budgets as finance minister between 1959 and 1964.

In her seventh record Budget, Nirmala Sitharaman outlined key priorities aimed at fostering economic growth and creating ample opportunities. These included productivity and resilience in agriculture, employment and skilling and services.

“India’s economic growth continues to be the shining exception (in a world that is gripped by policy uncertainties) and will remain so in the years ahead,” Sitharaman said while presenting the Budget in the Parliament. “In this budget, we particularly focus on employment, skilling, MSMEs, and the middle class.”

Here, we take a look at the measures aimed at salaried persons and job seekers in the Union Budget 2024-25.

In the budget, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced an increase in the standard deduction for salaried employees from ₹50,000 to ₹75,000 under the new income tax regime – an increase of 50%.

Standard deduction refers to a flat deduction from the total salary earned by an employee in a year before calculating the applicable income tax rate.

Notably, no change has been announced regarding the standard deduction in the old tax regime .

In her budget speech, Nirmala Sitharaman also announced relaxation in the income tax slabs under the new tax regiment for the current fiscal year.