Noting that the goernment led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not put additional tax burden during the Covid to meet government expenditure, she said the approach is to simplify taxation and reduce the burden on taxpayers.

Replying to the opposition members who repeatedly accused the government of burdening taxpayers both through direct and indirect taxes, she said that government has raised standard deduction for salaried employees, increased the limit of exemption of capital gains on certain listed financial assets and abolished angel tax.

“Standard deduction for salaries employees has also been increased from Rs 50000 to Rs 75000 in the new regime in this budget. This is an effective relief up to Rs 17500 for a salaried employee,” she said

“In 2023, the slabs for personal income tax were significantly liberalised. All tax payers had reduced tax liability of Rs 37500. This govt has again revised slabs in the new regime,” she added.

The minister said that these steps will benefit middle class.

For the benefit of the lower and middle-income classes, Sitharaman in her Budget speech on July 23 proposed to increase the limit of exemption of capital gains on certain listed financial assets from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.25 lakh per year.

Coming to personal income tax rates, she had two announcements will help those opting filing returns under new tax regime.

First, the standard deduction for salaried employees is proposed to be increased from Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000. As a result of these changes, a salaried employee in the new tax regime stands to save up to Rs 17,500 in income tax. Similarly, deduction on family pension for pensioners is proposed to be enhanced from Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000.

This, she said, will provide relief to about four crore salaried individuals and pensioners.