Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday announced the Union Budget 2017. In a big step, the Finance Minister announced the reduction of the existing rate of taxation for individuals with income ranging between Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh to 5% instead of 10%.
This means that everyone under the tax bracket of Rs 50 lakh stand to gain Rs 12,500 tax benefit in the coming year. There will be a surcharge of 10% for those whose annual income is Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore. Additionally, the 15% surcharge on Rs 1 crore or more remains unchanged.
This is to make up for Rs 15,000 crore loss due to the cut in the personal income tax rate.
Some more Budget 2017 highlights are as follows:
No service tax on digital rail bookings
Hardware and software changes for Metro
Spectrum scarcity not a problem any more
BharatNet optical fibre rollout in Budget 2017
The digital village
Manufacturing announcements in Budget 2017
Easier foreign investments
Digital pension system in Budget 2017
Cyber-security for financial systems
BHIM gets new schemes
Digital payments to be encouraged in Budget 2017