TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi-The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) is in favour of keeping the threshold for the income tax exemption intact at Rs 2.5 lakh. Instead, they want to extend the tax (10%) on the Rs 5 lakh slab to Rs 7 lakh.
Officials said the Aayog favours expansion of the tax base to enable more people to pay taxes, rather than expanding the exemption limits. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had raised the threshold for income tax exemption to Rs 2.5 lakh from Rs 2 lakh in his very first Budget for 2014-15.
At present, there are three slabs — 10 per cent for annual income between Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 5 lakh, 20 per cent on annual income from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh, and 30 per cent on income above Rs 10 lakh. The Aayog also advocated job creation being the central theme of the Budget.
In its appraisal of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan (2012-13 and 2016-17) — the last such exercise before Plan winds up — the Aayog also wanted the government to curb discretionary powers of the tax officials and a clear regulation on it. The appraisal is being done only two and a half months before the Plans ends.
