India Budget 2009-10: Income Tax Exemption Limit Increased

Budget 2009-10 is being carried over in India. As such many new announcements are coming from Ministers concerned with different departments. After Mamta Banerjee successfully delivered the rail budget getting a big applaud, it's the time for Pranab Mukherjee, the now Finance Minister of India. Today was the day for him to put infront the financial budget for the fiscal 2009-10 for Indian Republic. Though he failed to bring lots of happiness on the faces of the public but he still somehow manages to get worth of praise for raising the limits of Income Tax Exemption for small and medium tax payers.

Income Tax Exemption which was earlier used to be Rs 2.25 lacs for senior citizens has now been raised to Rs 2.40 lacs for the senior citizens. This shows the hike of Rs 15,000 in the Income Tax Exemption for senior citizens. Well, the Income Tax Exemption given in budget 2009-10 is not limited to senior citizens only. Women and general tax payers are also given an exemtpion by Rs 10,000 each. This means for women, Income Tax Exemption limit will be Rs 190,000 and for other categories of individual tax payers, the IT Exemption limit will be Rs 160,000 from the upcoming financial year.

The exemption in IT may look ok for senior citizens and women but majority of individual income tax payers will not be happy from this act of government. Only last year, the Income Tax Exemption limit was raised to Rs 1.5 lacs for general category of tax payers. So a hike of Rs 10,000 only when they could have expected more from honorable Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee simply doesn't makes a sense for them. They were expecting a cap of at least around Rs 2.0 lacs. Also the Finance Minister said nothing on raising the limits for high tax payers. He also didn't raises the exemption limit for corporate sector yet.

Furthermore, the deductions under Section 80C has also been raised in the India Budget 2009-2010 for maximum of upto Rs 100,000. However, still this is not the budget that can bring joy on the face of every Indian because the FM simply failed to deliver what every Indian wanted apart from satisfying the needs of just one group of people.
 
                                                Budget Teaser
Basic Slabs:

• Exemption limit raised from Rs. 1,50,000 to Rs. 1,60,000
• Upto Rs. 1 ;60,000                         Nil
• Rs. 1,60,001 to Rs. 3,00,000           10%
• Rs. 3,00,001 to Rs. 5,00,000           20%
• Above Rs. 5,00,000                        30%

Slabs for women under  the age of 65:

• Exemption limit raised from Rs. 1,80,000 to Rs. 1,90,000
• Upto Rs. 1,90,000                        Nil
• Rs. 1,90,001 to Rs. 3,00,000         10%
• Rs. 3,00,001 to Rs. 5,00,000         20%
• Above Rs. 5,00,000                      30%

Slabs for senior citizens (over 65 years)

• Exemption limit raised from Rs. 2,25,000 to 2,40,000
• Upto Rs. 2,40,000                        Nil
• Rs. 2,40,001 to Rs. 3,00,000         10%
• Rs. 3,00,001 to Rs. 5,00,000         20%
• Above Rs. 5,00,000                      30%