Union Budget 2017: Tax rate slashed to 5% for taxpayers below Rs 5 lakh income

FM Arun Jaitley announced a cut down in income tax rate for taxpayers with income below Rs 5 lakh (Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh) to 5% from the current 10%. This would also translate into an additional benefit of Rs 12,500 for tax payers even beyond Rs 5 lakh.

To part finance the additional burden on the government for this tax relief, FM Jaitley announced a surcharge of 10% for those earning between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 1 crore.

Currently individual tax payers & HUF (less than 60 years) don’t need to pay any tax if they earn up to Rs 2.5 lakh. They need to pay 10 per cent tax if they earn between Rs 250,001 lakh and Rs 5 lakh, while 20 per cent tax is levied on the income ranging from Rs 500,001 to Rs 10 lakh and 30 per cent on an income above Rs 10 lakh.

Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis tweeted about union budget as a pathbreaking budget.

Pathbreaking budget !
It has the same disruptive effect as demonetisation had.
Country will leapfrog to next level.#BudgetforBetterIndia

— Devendra Fadnavis (@Dev_Fadnavis) February 1, 2017

Another tweet from railway

Unified budget provides an opportunity for integrated transport solutions by synergising rail, road & waterways transportation investments pic.twitter.com/xAzjJXjket

— Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) February 1, 2017