FM offers limited tax sops to individual taxpayers; Sr Citizens

By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, MAR 16, 2012: AS expected the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, today announced a hike of Rs 20000 in the general exemption limit for individual taxpayers. It has been hiked to Rs two lakh from Rs 1,80,000.

It has also been proposed to raise the upper limit of 20 per cent tax slab from Rs. 8 lakh to Rs. 10 lakh. The proposed personal income tax slabs are:

Income uptoRs . 2 lakh

Nil

Income above Rs. 2 lakh and uptoRs . 5 lakh

10 per cent

Income above Rs. 5 lakh and upto Rs.10 lakh

20 per cent

Income above Rs. 10 lakh

30 per cent

In another relief to the individual taxpayers, a deduction of upto Rs 10,000 has been proposed for interest from savings bank accounts. This would help a large number of small taxpayers with salary incomes upto Rs 5 lakh and interest from savings bank accounts upto Rs 10,000 as they would not be required to file income tax returns.

It has also been proposed to allow deduction of Rs. 5,000 for preventive health check up.

For senior citizens not having income from business, it has been proposed to exempt them from payment of advance tax.