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Here are 10 measures Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced in the Union Budget 2016 that affects the salaried class, for good or for bad.
What do you think of these proposals? Vote at the end of each proposal!
1. Taxing PF withdrawals
After announcing on Monday that 60 per cent of PF corpus will be taxed on withdrawal after April 1, 2016, the government on Tuesday pedalled back and clarified that only interest accrued on contributions made after April 1 will be taxed on withdrawal.
The government may have thus tried to sweeten the pill, but the fact remains that it still is a bitter pill.
What do you think of this proposal?
2. For those not getting HRA, deduction limit for house rent has been hiked from Rs 2,000 per month to Rs 5,000.
What do you think of this proposal?
3. Tax rebate for annual income less than Rs 5 lakh has been raised to Rs 5,000, from Rs 2,000.
What do you think of this proposal?
4. Taxing the super-rich, surcharge on annual income of Rs 1 crore and above has been raised from 12 pc to 15 pc.
What do you think of this proposal?
5. Employer's contribution to PF exceeding Rs 1.5 lakh per year to be taxed. Earlier this was pegged at 12% of salary.
What do you think of this proposal?
6. Professionals can now pay presumptive tax on 50% of gross income of less than Rs 50 lakh per year, up from Rs 25 lakh.
What do you think of this proposal?
7. Additional deduction of Rs 50,000 for first-time home buyers on interest for loans up Rs 35 lakh, provided the value of the house does not exceed Rs 50 lakh.
What do you think of this proposal?
8. Car prices pushed up with infrastructure cess introduced on all cars and utility vehicles, ranging from 1% on entry level cars to 4% on big sedans and SUVs which will also face a 1% luxury tax.
What do you think of this proposal?
9. The FM has announced 2% excise duty on readymade retail garments costing Rs 1000 and more, pushing up apparel costs.
What do you think of this proposal?
10. With the introduction of Krishi Kalyan Cess of 0.5% on all taxable services, the effective rate of service tax paid by you goes up to 15%.
What do you think of this proposal?
Finally, Budget 2016 was considered to be a ';make or break' one for the Modi government. Now that you have read about the proposals, how do you rate Jaitley's Budget on a scale of 1 to 10 (where 1 is the lowest and 10 is the highest grade)?
Tell us!