Government News

The last budget before the polls had the slogan "Developed India By 2047" and no tax changes.

By - 01 Feb 2024 05:57 PM

Delhi, New: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated on Thursday morning during the reading of a statement of the nation's finances in a special session of Parliament that there will be no changes to the income tax slabs, which have been lowered and rationalized, in the 2024 interim Budget. "I propose to retain the same tax rates for direct and indirect taxes, including import duties," said Ms. Sitharaman.

Nonetheless, she suggested that unpaid direct tax demands of up to ₹ 25,000 until FY09/10 and up to ₹ 10,000 for FY10/11 to FY14/15 be withdrawn, claiming that this would help approximately one crore taxpayers.

Ms. Sitharaman commented, "... there are a lot of small-scale, unverified, unreconciled, or contested direct tax demands, many of which date back to 1962, which are still on the books, worrying honest taxpayers... I would like to remove these unfulfilled direct tax demands."Regarding the overall tax situation, the Finance Minister reported that over the previous ten years, direct collections had more than tripled and that the number of individuals filing returns had increased by 2.4 times.

Given that this is an interim budget, intended primarily to fund government operations until a new administration is elected and assumes power later this year, the suspension of tax slab revisions was not surprising.