New Delhi: The Modi government’s Budget 2019 income tax announcements turned out to be a boon rather than a bane for the Indian railways, and the Coal India Limited employees. Piyush Goyal, the interim financial minister, who is also in charge of the Railways ministry, announced some major announcements, like the extension of tax relief under Section 87A. Goyal stated that salaried persons having an income of Rs 500,000 or less will not have to pay taxes any more. The section 87A, allows exemption of Rs 2500 for persons having an income below Rs 350,000. The finance minister also extended the standard deduction limit from Rs 10,000 to 50,000. Goyal’s announcements turned out to be a sigh of relief for the middle-class salaried individuals.
It is said that above 5.5 lakhs Indian Railways employees will gain from this new rule since their income are under Rs 5 lakhs. Similarly, Coal India’s 38,000 plus employees will avail benefits from this tax rebate, as per the sources. The national transporter is said to be one of the largest job providers in the country, as nearly 12 Lakhs people are working under the Indian Railways, CIL is also another largest public sector units, which provides jobs in huge volumes.
The FM also announced that because of this rebate “even employees having gross income up to Rs 6.50 lakhss may not need to pay any income tax if they make investments in provident funds, specified savings, insurance, etc.” Sources said that this will further benefit Over 2.6 lakhs Indian Railways employees taking the total number of Indian Railways employees benefiting from new Income Tax rebate rule to over 8 lakhs. Coal India’s over 36,000 employees will also get similar benefits.
Goyal further said that with additional deductions such as interest on home loan up to Rs 2 lakhs, interest on education loans, National Pension Scheme contributions, medical insurance, medical expenditure on senior citizens, etc., persons having even higher income will not have to pay any tax. “This will provide tax benefit of Rs 18,500 crore to an estimated 3 crore middle class taxpayers comprising self employed, small business, small traders, salary earners, pensioners and senior citizens,” Goyal said.
The FM also announced that with the Standard Deduction for salaried individuals being raised from the current level of Rs 40,000 to 50,000 have benefited above 3 crore salaried persons and pensioners.
