Budget 2024: profit or huge loss for middle class?

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has presented her Budget speech! She has presented the Interim Budget of the year 2024-25 at Parliament on Thursday, February 1. This happened a day after the commencement of the Budget Session. Various industry stalwarts, spanning sectors like EV, real estate, healthcare, education, energy, auto, agriculture, FMCG, IT, and also defence were eagerly waiting the interim budget. Now as the countdown to the budget presentation haa begun, all the  information about all Budget 2024 will be updated. But will this new budget be a fresh air for the middle class families or it will be a huge loss for them?

 the Budget 2024 will be a help for the middle-class !

Although the full budget will be presented in July by the ruling government after the election. But the middle class is now eagerly waiting for some income tax reforms which would be a help for them to curtail their tax outgo. The middle class is expecting that after the Budget 2024, there will be a rise in some tax exemption limits available under various sections like, Section 80C, and Section 80D. Now we will tell you the things that will be helpful for the middle class after the budget 2024!

Rebate in the Income Tax slabs!

The middle class is expecting a rebate in the income tax exemption limit. It is expected  from ₹2.5 lakh to ₹5 lakh. Although the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tweaked the slab rates for individuals opting for the new income tax regime.

Raise in Section 80C limit!

The current limit is now ₹1.5 lakh for investment deductions under Section 80C. But this has not been updated in over a decade. Everyone is expecting it to be increased, which will allow greater tax savings and increased investments. “The earlier limit of ₹1 lakh was fixed way back in 2003. It has been almost 18 years since the original limit of ₹1 lakh was fixed. It has only been increased by 50% in 2014 which works out to just less than 3% annually. This annual average increase is not even on par with average inflation during the same period. In my opinion, this should be directly raised minimum to ₹2.50 lakh,” said Mumbai-based tax and investment expert Balwant Jain.

Raise in standard deduction!

The Finance Act 2018 had introduced a Standard Deduction from salary of ₹40,000.  after the budget 2019, this was increased to ₹50,000. Now, in the middle of the huge wake of rising costs of medical expenses and fuel, there is a strong chance for increasing the standard deduction limit from ₹50,000 to ₹1 lakh!

Relief for homebuyers!

“Given the overcrowding of Section 80 C, 80CCC, and 80CCD(1) and the need for larger home loans, the finance minister should provide a separate deduction for repayment of home loans, in the ensuing budget. A leaf can be taken from Section 80EEA, under which a separate deduction was introduced in 2019, for interest on home loans for first-time home buyers,” said Balwant Jain.