Budget 2024: Revised tax slabs, budget boost for Andhra Pradesh, Bihar
Modi 3.0 coalition government’s first budget saw gains for Bihar and Andhra Pradesh with a series of packages and allotments. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday announced minor income tax relief for the middle class but continued with high tax slabs on people with higher salaried class. Higher taxation on capital gains tumbled the stock market. The budget announced a Rs.2 lakh crore outlay for job creation schemes over the next five years.
The Finance Minister abolished the ‘angel tax‘ for all classes of investors in startups, cut customs duty on mobile phones and gold, and simplified capital gains tax. She, however, raised the securities transaction tax (STT) on futures and options of securities, which led to the tanking of stock markets. Besides Rs.2 lakh crore provided over a five-year period for schemes and initiatives to facilitate employment, skilling, and other opportunities for 4.1 crore youth, “I have made a provision of Rs.1.48 lakh crore for education, employment, and skilling,” she said.
For Bihar, where Assembly elections are due next year, the Finance Minister announced spending of Rs.60,000 crore on infrastructure projects like expressways, power plants, heritage corridors, and new airports. The support to Bihar, whose ruling party and BJP’s partner JD-U has been demanding an economic package and special category status for the state, is in the form of capital projects but not subsidy or cash dole.
Similarly, for Andhra Pradesh, whose ruling TDP recently joined the BJP-led NDA, she allocated Rs.15,000 crore in financial aid through multilateral agencies. A similar request for support to Bihar will be expedited, she said.
For the middle class, she raised the standard deduction — a flat deduction from the total salary earned by an employee in a year before calculating the applicable income tax rate — by 50 percent to Rs.75,000 and tweaked tax slabs for taxpayers opting for the new income tax regime. This will lead to taxpayers under the new tax regime — which offers lower rates of taxes but permits limited deductions and exemptions — saving up to Rs.17,500 in tax annually, she said.
To spur employment, the Budget provided incentives for companies, including paying for one-month salary for first-time employees, incentives at specified sales to both employees and empowering with respect to their retirement fund contribution in the first four years of employment and reimbursing employers up to Rs.3,000 per month for 2 years towards EPFO contribution of each additional employee.
Also, a programme to improve skills as well as internships for students and subsidized loans for higher education will be provided, she said. India’s official unemployment rate in urban areas is pegged at 6.7 percent but private agencies put it at much higher levels.
For all the latest updates, download PGurus App.
- CBI chargesheets Anil Ambani, Rana Kapoor in Rs.2,796-crore Yes Bank fraud case - September 18, 2025
- HP Consumer Commission orders Air India to pay Rs.52,500 over Subramanian Swamy’s missed flight - September 18, 2025
- Will study implications, take steps to protect national interests: India on Pak-Saudi defence deal - September 18, 2025
Bihar inspite of so many ministers in past, it remained backward due to corruption. Trust this money will also get drowned in ganges river.