Budget 2024 preassumptions : Increased deduction of limits, and the other benefits.

The Individual taxpayers having certain wants for the upcoming Union Budget 2024, for raising the deduction limit under Section 80 Common man's wantlist for Finance Minister in Union Budget 2024

With Union Budget 2024, just days away, individual taxpayers wish that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will fulfill some of their wishes. They have certain wishes for the Finance Minister, including raising the deduction limit under Section 80 C to make the accumulated balance in the National Pension Scheme (NPS) tax-free at the time of withdrawal.

Salaried individuals : are expecting a separate deduction for repayment of home loans.

Individual taxpayers have certain wishes for the upcoming Union Budget 2024, including raising the deduction limit under Section 80 Common man's wishlist for Finance Minister in Union Budget 2024

Budget 2024: Last month, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman played down expectations of big announcements in the interim budget in February,

Budget 2024: Last month, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman played down expectations of big announcements in the interim budget in February,

With Union Budget 2024, just days away, individual taxpayers wish that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will fulfill some of their wishes. They have certain wishes for the Finance Minister, including raising the deduction limit under Section 80 C to make the accumulated balance in the National Pension Scheme (NPS) tax-free at the time of withdrawal.

Salaried individuals are expecting a separate deduction for repayment of home loans, enhancements in Section 80C and 80D deductions, and measures to encourage the shift to the new tax regime for home loan borrowers.

Here's what a common man wishes from the Finance Minister in the Union Budget on February 1.

Presently as per Section 80 CCE the deductions available under Section 80C, 80CCC, and 80 CCD(1) put together are capped at ₹1.50 lakh per year. This limit of ₹1.50 lakh was revised from ₹1 lakh in 2014.

“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.

“Tax slabs have remained unchanged since 2014, burdening households with higher real tax rates each year. Indexing tax slab limits to inflation would put more money in the hands of middle-class consumers to counter cost pressures without fiscal damage," said Agam Gupta, Exеcutivе Dirеctor, Sharе India Fincap.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while presenting Budget 2023 on 1 February 2023.

-No tax would be levied for income up to ₹3 lakh

-Income between ₹3-6 lakh would be taxed at 5 per cent

-Income between ₹6-9 lakh would be taxed at 10 per cent

-Income between ₹9-12 lakh at 15 per cent

-Income of ₹15 lakh and above will be taxed at 30 per cent.

-Income between ₹12-15 lakh at 20 per cent.

In contrast to the NPS withdrawals, the accumulated balance in the employee provident fund (EPF), comes fully tax-free at the time of retirement. As per Balwant Jain, if the government cannot make the EPF balance on retirement taxable to the extent of 40% of the accumulated corpus like NPS, which the government had attempted a few years back, the government should at least attempt to bring in parity by working another way round and make the entire accumulated balance in NPS at the time of withdrawal tax-free.

“The Government should do away with the requirement to buy an annuity with 40% of the corpus and leave the decision to the subscriber where to invest the money,"

However, last month, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman played down expectations of big announcements in the interim budget in February, saying it will be a vote-on-account, and is likely to be devoid of any ‘spectacular announcements’.