India has been looking forward to a progressive budget after recent recession to boost the economy and control inflation. This year budget can be term as Populist as many stimulus has been rolled back. But it has more of Greens and less of Reds, so relax and donot get tensed.
For Individuals:
* The basic exemption slab has not been changed and kept at existing Rs.1.6 Lacs
* Tax slabs has been changed to provide relief to middle and high income earners. The new tax slabs are:
# upto 1.6 Lacs - NIL
# 1.6 to 5 Lacs - 10%
# 5 to 8 Lacs - 20%
# Above 8 Lacs - 30%
* Additional Deduction of Rs.20,000/- is provided u/s 80C (in addition to existing Rs.1 Lac) for investments in Long term infrastructure bonds as notified by Central Government bonds
* Ambit of deductions in respect of contributions to Health insurance schemes has been widened to include Central Government Health Schemes.
* Saral-2 to be introduced for current year instead of ITR. eLagaan will launch the new forms as soon as the same are released by IT department, so no more worry with changing formats when you prepare the tax returns at eLagaan.
For Businesses:
* Surcharge for companies has been reduced from 10% to 7.5%
* Minimum Alternate tax has been increased from 15% to 18% of book profits
* Deductions in respect of expenses incurred on in-house research & development has been increased from 150% to 200%
* Deduction on payments made to approved research institutes for scientific research has been increased from 125% t0 175%
* Limit for accounts to be audited has been increased from 40Lacs to 60lacs for businesses and from 10lacs to 15Lacs for Professionals
* Interest for delay in depositing taxes has been increased from 12%p.a. to 18%p.a
Other Highlights
* Petrol and diesel will cost more
* Normal cars to cost more and ELECTRIC cars to cost less
* Custom duty on precioous metals like Gold, Platinum etc. hiked from Rs.200 to Rs.300 per gram
* GST and Direct Tax Code to be applicable from 01-Apr-2011