Union Budget 2024: Income tax rebate unlikely to rise in interim budget

Less than a month away from the presentation of the interim Union Budget 2024, a senior finance ministry official has said that no rebate is expected on income tax for the upcoming financial year, reported Moneycontrol on Tuesday.
On January 9, a senior official from the Finance Ministry told Moneycontrol, “There is no such proposal,” when asked about any potential hike in the tax rebate in FY2024-2025.
Earlier, there were speculations that the Finance Ministry will include a proposal that the personal income tax rebate be increased from the current ₹7 lakh to ₹7.5 lakh during the interim budget. However, the report has dismissed these speculations.
It must be noted that due to the Lok Sabha elections set to take place in April-May 2024, the budget will be presented in an interim capacity. This means that no major policies and rules will be introduced in the Union Budget 2024 on February 1.
While no hike on tax rebate is expected, the government official told Moneycontrol that the Centre may include in the interim budget a waiver of tax collected at source (TCS) on individual overseas credit and debit card expenditures, up to ₹7 lakh per year.
A government official further said that amendment of the Income Tax Act will be a part of the Finance Bill 2024 during interim budget presentation. However, he said that no major tax related announcement are likely.
The interim budget of 2024 will be presented on February 1, and will be a vote-on-account. The vote-on-account provision allows an outgoing government to reach the end of its term to secure funding till a new government is formed and a comprehensive budget for the year is approved.
Through the interim budget on vote-on-account, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will only present the budget for the first three months of the financial year. After this, a consolidated budget will presented to plan the spendings of the rest of the three quarters of FY2024-2025.