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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said the optional income tax regime with seven tax slabs was brought in by the government to ensure lower rates for those in the low income bracket. Sitharaman said in the old tax regime, every tax assesses can claim about 7-10 exemptions and the income tax rates vary between 10, 20, and 30 per cent, depending on income threshold. The minister said along with the old tax regime, the government has come up with a parallel system which has no exemptions, but with simpler and more favourable tax rates. "The reason why I had to bring in seven slabs was to make simpler and lower rates for those who are in the lower income (bracket)," Sitharaman said. She was speaking at an event to launch the book 'Reform Nation', authored by Observer Research Foundation Vice President Gautam Chikarmane. The government in Budget 2020-21 introduced the optional income tax regime, under which individuals and Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs) were to be taxed at
The GST Council, chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, will meet on Friday, which among other things may review tax rate of over four-dozen items and extend till December 31, tax concessions on 11 COVID drugs. Also, taxing petrol and diesel under the single national GST tax and a proposal to treat food delivery apps such as Zomato and Swiggy as restaurants and levy a 5 per cent GST tax on supplies made by them would be taken up by the Council at its meeting in Lucknow on September 17. "Finance Minister Smt @nsitharaman will chair the 45th GST Council meeting at 11 AM in Lucknow tomorrow. The meeting will be attended by MOS Shri @mppchaudhary besides Finance Ministers of States & UTs and Senior officers from Union Government & States," the Finance Ministry tweeted. The Council, comprising central and state finance ministers, will deliberate on the proposal of extending the existing concessional tax rate structure on Amphotericin B, Tocilizumab, Remdesivir and ...