Bhubaneswar: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s proposal to revise income tax slabs under the new regime and raise standard deduction by Rs 25,000 has been met with mixed response. Experts said the relaxation was given to attract more taxpayers to the new regime, but rued that it is nominal.
“For the middle class, the Budget is below average while it is above normal for the industry.However, the minor changes made in the income tax slabs is better than not changing it at all,” said chartered accountant A K Sabat.
Those with salaries between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 7 lakh were pleased with the reduction in tax rates from 10% to 5%.
“Reducing the tax on income up to Rs 7 lakh will make a difference in my monthly budget. The increase of standard deduction from Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000 is a welcome step, but the govt could have raised it to Rs 1 lakh,” said Manish Mishra, a govt employee.
A section of the middle class felt changes provided only marginal relief and did not adequately address high inflation and economic uncertainties. “To get the benefit of Rs 17,500, one needs to come under the tax slab of Rs 15 lakh per annum. So where is the relief?” said Mukesh Biswal, a private company employee.

We also published the following articles recently