[New Delhi]Budget Consoles Salaried & Pensioner Tax Payers
Small Relief is provided to salaried and senior citizen taxpayers
Salaried are allowed standard deduction of Rs 40,000 in lieu of present exemptions
Whereas Senior Citizens are allowed exemption of interest income on deposits with a increased from Rs. 10,000/- to Rs. 50,000/-
Differently-Abled will continue to get transport allowance at enhanced rate
In order to provide relief to salaried taxpayer, the Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Shri Arun Jaitley, proposed to allow a standard deduction of Rs. 40,000/- in lieu of the present exemption in respect of
transport allowance and
reimbursement of miscellaneous medical expenses. However, the transport allowance at enhanced rate shall continue to be available to differently-abled persons. Also, other medical reimbursement benefits in case of hospitalisation etc., for all employees shall continue.
Presenting the General Budget 2018-19 in the Parliament here today, the Finance Minister said, “Standard deduction shall significantly benefit the pensioners also, who normally do not enjoy any allowance on account of transport and medical expenses. The revenue cost of this decision is approximately Rs.8,000 crores. The total number of salaried employees and pensioners who will benefit from this decision is around 2.5 crores.”
Finance Minister said that the exemption of interest income on deposits with banks and post offices to be increased from Rs. 10,000/- to Rs. 50,000/- and TDS shall not be required to be deducted on such income, under section 194A.
This benefit shall be available also for interest from all fixed deposits schemes and recurring deposit schemes.
The Finance Minister also announced raising the limit of deduction for health insurance premium and/ or medical expenditure from Rs. 30,000/- to Rs. 50,000/-, under section 80D. All senior citizens will now be able to claim benefit of deduction up to Rs. 50,000/- per annum in respect of any health insurance premium and/or any general medical expenditure incurred.
Further, the Finance Minister proposed raising the limit of deduction for medical expenditure in respect of certain critical illness from Rs. 60,000/- in case of senior citizens and from Rs. 80,000/- in case of very senior citizens, to Rs. 1 lakh in respect of all senior citizens, under section 80DDB.
These concessions will give extra tax benefit of Rs. 4,000 crores to senior citizens.

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