Demonetisation Concession: Government Plans To Raise I-T Exemption Limit For Individuals  

The Central government is planning to increase the income tax threshold in the coming fiscal year to ease the demonetisation-related hardships faced by the common man.

The Finance Ministry is planning to raise the income tax threshold by Rs 20,000 to Rs 50,000. As of now, individual assesses need not pay any tax on income up to Rs 2.5 lakh a year. The threshold for senior citizens is at Rs 3 lakh a year,d Rs 5 lakh for those above 80. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, established the aforementioned threshold in his first budget for 2014-15.

The Finance Ministry is also set on further alleviating the compliance burden on individual assessees. “Most processes such as filing and refunds are already online. The objective will be to further cut the physical interface between the taxpayer and the department,” said an official to the Hindu Business Line, while cautioning that this may have to be balanced by the requirement of more disclosures in the Income Tax Return forms.