The Indian Union Budget 2008 has been presented today by the honorable finance minister of India, Mr. P. Chidambaram. The matter of taxation has been one of the major areas of discussion.
Following are the major declarations concerning the tax structure that have been made in the Union Budget 2008:
- The tax exemption limit has been hiked from ` 1,10,000 to ` 1,50,000.
- The tax exemption limit for women has been increased from ` 1,45,000 to 1,80,000
- The rate of taxation for the income bracket from ` 1,50,000 to 3,00,000 is supposed to be 10%
- The rate of taxation for the income bracket from ` 3,00,000 to ` 5,00,000 is supposed to be 20%
- Those who earn more than ` 5 lakhs on an annual basis would have to pay taxes at the rate of 30%
- The Exemption limit for the senior citizens is supposed to be raised from ` 1,95,000 to 2,25,000
- The General CENVAT rate on the common products is supposed to be brought down from 16% to 14%
- The excise duties on paper and paper goods would be lowered
- The excise duties on the pharmaceutical products would be lowered to 14%
- Those who are paying medical insurance expenses on behalf of their parents would be eligible for tax exemption
- Taxes on short-term capital gains have increased by 1.5 per cent
- The rates of corporate taxes remain the same
- The corporate surcharge taxes remain the same
- Unbranded petrol would be charged at the rate of 1.35 per litre
- Henceforth, there would be no excise duties levied on set top boxes
- Unbranded diesel would have an excise duty of ` 4.6 per litre
- For every metric ton of cement clinkers ` 450 would be levied as excise duties
- As per the finance minister, the proposals of direct taxes are supposed to be revenue neutral
- The rates of taxes on filtered and unfiltered cigarettes have been increased
