In her Budget 2024-25 speech, the Finance Minister highlighted nine main areas for government focus. These include making the economy more efficient and resilient, creating more jobs and improving skills, supporting both manufacturing and services, ensuring a steady energy supply, and building better infrastructure. The government also plans to boost manufacturing, update land policies, improve city planning, and push for new reforms. In short, the government is prioritizing efforts to strengthen different parts of the economy and society to ensure overall growth and stability.
Top Highlights of the Union Budget 2024
The government is set to invest ₹11.11 lakh crore in projects and infrastructure, which amounts to 3.4% of the nation’s GDP.
Fiscal Deficit: The budget aims to reduce the fiscal deficit to 4.9% of GDP, down from the previously planned 5.1%.
Highway Funding: ₹26,000 crore will be allocated for highway projects in Bihar, while ₹15,000 crore will be used to improve infrastructure in Andhra Pradesh.
Support for State Infrastructure: ₹1.5 lakh crore will be given as long-term, interest-free loans to help state governments invest in infrastructure.
Startup Relief: The government is eliminating Angel Taxes that startups had to pay.
Corporate Tax Reduction: The tax rate for foreign companies will be lowered from 40% to 35%.
Personal Income Tax Regime for 2024-25
| Income Range (in ₹) | Tax Rate |
| 0 – 3 lakh | Nil |
| 3 – 7 lakh | 5% |
| 7 – 10 lakh | 10% |
| 10 – 12 lakh | 15% |
| 12 – 15 lakh | 20% |
| Above 15 lakh | 30% |
- Standard Deduction: The standard deduction under the new tax regime has been increased to ₹75,000. This means you can reduce your taxable income by this amount, lowering the taxes you owe.
- Tax Brackets: Updated tax brackets will allow salaried employees to save up to ₹17,500 annually in taxes.
- Family Pension Deduction:The deduction for family pensions has been raised from ₹15,000 to ₹25,000, benefiting around 4 crore salaried individuals and pensioners.
- PM Awas Yojana Urban 2.0: ₹10 lakh crore has been allocated to PM Awas Yojana Urban 2.0 to assist 1 crore poor and middle-class individuals in urban areas.
- Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana: A new phase of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana will begin to enhance roads and connectivity in 25,000 growing rural areas.
- National Pension System Contributions: Employers can now deduct 14% of their contributions to the National Pension System, up from 10%.
- Securities Transaction Tax (STT): The STT on trading in futures and options has increased by 0.02% and 0.1%, respectively.
- Share Buybacks: Money received from share buybacks will now be subject to tax for the recipient.
- Tarun Loan Limit: The maximum loan limit under the ‘Tarun’ category has been raised to ₹20 lakh from ₹10 lakh for small and medium businesses.
- Tax Rates on Gains:
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- Short-term gains from financial assets will be taxed at 20%.
- Long-term gains from all types of assets will be taxed at 12.5%.
- The annual exemption limit for capital gains on financial assets has been increased to ₹1.25 lakh.
