Will income tax rate for middle class be reduced? Nirmala Sitharaman answers

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday (September 16) asked a burning question most Indian taxpayers wants the answer to: Will income tax rate for middle class be reduced?

In her extensive comment during an exclusive interview with News18, Sitharaman said, “Since 2019, the attempt has been to simply direct taxation. Attempt has been to make the process simpler, which is why a new regime was brought in and rates kept low. We gave the option to assessees that if they want exemptions, they could continue with the old scheme.”

She said that the new scheme did not have any exemptions, something that changed after the government added standard deductions. “In the July budget, we again had more discussions and brought more rates down for the middle class. Standard deduction was also increased,” Sitharaman said.

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Delivering insight into the thought that went behind constructing the budget, she said that keeping the middle class in mind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that tax rates should be brought down. “We have kept the middle class in mind. I understand there are those who feel the rates being brought down for the new scheme should be applied for the old scheme. But our intention with the new scheme was to simplify.”

She said that over 70 per cent of the people have moved to the new regime, although nobody was compelled to do so. With this, Sitharaman implied that most people were getting the benefit of lower tax rates under the new scheme.

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She also said that no direct tax rate has been increased in the Union Budget.

Apart from this, the finance minister also spoke on the issue of the goods and services tax (GST). “Group of Ministers are working on simplifying rates and bringing it down. The way to do it will have to be decided by GoM and later the council,” she said.