Budget 2019: Increase in tax exemption limit gets thumbs up

Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal's proposal to increase the income tax exemption limit to Rs 5 lakh in the interim Budget on Friday got the thumbs up from people.

Sanjay Patel from Mumbai told ANI: "This is really good. People with gross income of Rs 6.5 lakh will not need to pay the tax."

Around 3 crore middle-class taxpayers will get tax exemption due to this measure. Earlier, the income tax exemption limit was Rs 2.5 lakh.

"This is a splendid budget. Modi would be much popular if he had presented a budget like this before. The young generation will get the benefit," said a senior citizen.

This is the last budget of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government before the Lok Sabha polls due in April-May.

"We welcome this decision. The salaried class would get the benefit of this but I don't know how an ordinary man gets the benefit out of it," a resident of Siliguri, Tarun Sarkar, said.

On Friday, Piyush Goyal presented the budget since Arun Jaitley is in the United States for medical treatment.

"We will have to see if it will sustain or not since it is only an Interim Budget. The other thing is that above Rs 5 lakh there is a 20% tax. The people earning more than Rs 5 lakh will try to avoid the tax and try to come under tax exemption income," one citizen from Ludhiana said.

Standard tax deduction for salaried persons has been raised from Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000. Tax deduction at source (TDS) threshold on interest on bank and post office deposits has been raised from Rs 10,000 to Rs 40,000.

TDS threshold on annual rental income has been raised from Rs 1.8 lakh to Rs 2.4 lakh.