Union Budget 2024: In view of elections nearby, this year’s budget to be presented on February 1, 2024, will be an interim budget. Although generally no significant changes are announced in the interim budgets, budget events always create excitement as hopes build up to get some relief. In last year’s budget, the government restructured the slabs and the tax rates under the new tax regime (NTR) to incentivize tax prayers to move towards a simplified tax regime by giving up certain exemptions and deductions.
The slabs and rates remained unchanged under the old regime. Yet many taxpayers still chose the old regime, as giving up deductions like HRA, LTA, deductions for investments under section 80C/80D, etc. did not reduce their tax liability when compared with the one under NTR.
The fact that the government also made the NTR the default regime last year means that at some point, in the new future, it is expected that there will only be one regime. But until that convergence happens, even those choosing the old regime have hopes from the budget. Here is the wish list, and some of them, if not now, do merit consideration later, when the newly elected government will present the full-year budget.
Raising the basic exemption limit and reducing the surchse.
Those continuing under the old regime are expecting the basic exemption limit to be brought to par with that under the new regime, i.e. Rs. 3,00,000. The surcharge of 37% should also be brought down to 25% as applicable under the NTR, as the maximum marginal rate under the old regime is high as compared to rates prevalent in developed countries.
Source: The Times of India
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