Nirmala Sitharaman on Budget 2024: ‘Want to give relief to middle class but...'

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that through the Union Budget 2024 the government aimed to provide relief to the middle class although there are limitations. The finance minister told Times Now, “I want to relieve the middle class but I have limitations too. I want to give relief by reducing the tax rate and that is why the standard deduction rate has been increased from ₹50,000 to ₹75,000. By increasing the tax rate, the tax liability of the high income class also increases. The new tax regime was implemented with the aim of reducing the tax rate and has lower tax rates than the old tax regime.”

Before GST, different states imposed their own taxes on essential items, leading to varied prices across the country but now the process has standardized prices of essential goods nationwide, providing relief to the common people, she said.

Budget 2024 proposed to change the income tax slabs under the new tax regime. The changes in the income tax slabs under the new tax regime will benefit people having taxable incomes upto ₹10 lakh. There is no change in the basic exemption limit under the old and new tax regimes. There is zero tax payable under the new tax regime if taxable incomes does not exceed ₹7 lakh. The proposed tax slabs are: 0 – ₹3,00,000 – 0%, ₹3,00,001- ₹7,00,000-5%, ₹7,00,001- ₹10,00,00-10%, ₹10,00,001- ₹12,00,000-15%, ₹12,00,001- ₹15,00,000- 20% and ₹15,00,001 and above – 30%.