Union Budget 2024: All you need to know about India’s Annual Financial Plan

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget of the fiscal year 2024-2025 in the Lower House having major focus on changes in personal taxation, infrastructural projects in states, youth employment and new taxation schemes for agricultural sector.

Personal Taxation slabs to be tweaked

The government has relaxed the income tax rate slabs in this fiscal year. They are as accord to 0% for Rs.3 lakh, 5% for income between Rs.3 lakh to Rs.6 lakh, 10% for income between Rs.6 lakh to Rs.12 lakh, 15% income for income between Rs.12 lakh to Rs.20 lakh and 25% for income above Rs.20 lakhs.

These recently revised tax slabs are a sigh of ease to the middle class tax payers altogether. The standard deduction limit has also been increased from Rs.50,000 in the last fiscal year to Rs.75,000 in the new one. Investments were also touched upon in the budget speech by the FM, including deduction for health insurance premiums spiked from 20% to 30%. The Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) in respect to eCommerce are to strike down from 1% to 0.1% this year. The Angel Tax has also been abolished for all sorts of investor classes.

Youth Employment on focus

The government has tried to focus on 4 pillars of economic sphere that are Mahila (women), Ann Daata (farmers), Garib (poor) and Yuva (youth) for this fiscal year’s theme. For youth, government has decided to work on the elements of skill development, inculcate start-up ecosystem, to promote job-creation initiatives, and to provide education and training for the employment sector of the country. The budget has allocated Rs. 10,000 Cr to different vocational training centers and skill development institutions.

This will fulfill the financial need to provide the youth with accurate industrial training. Projects in renewable energy are allocated a budget of around Rs.20,000 Cr for producing about 5 lakh new jobs in the next 5 years, along with different infrastructural projects with job creation rate of about 10 lakh jobs till 2026.

For women, Rs.3 lakh crore for women centric schemes. There is also allocation for Andra’s capital Amravati’s development of around Rs.20,000 Cr, to which Chandra babu Naidu has praised the budget. Bihar receives bonanza for roadways and expressways. Also, assistance budget provided for construction of temples in Bihar and Odisha. Funds also generated for Kolkata, Sikkim, Amritsar, etc.