Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman presented the budget on 1 February 2023. The total budget for the financial year 2023 - 2024 is Rs 4503097 crores out of which about 13.18% has been allotted to the Defense Ministry which is Rs 593537 crores. Although many important announcements have been made in this budget, but in this post we will tell those details which are important for the defense person.

Important Points of Budget 2023 - 2024 for Defense Personnel

• Changes in Income Tax Slab - Changes have also been made in the income tax slab in Budget 2024 and the limit of income tax exemption has also been increased. Earlier the basic tax exemption was Rs 2.50 lakhs, which has now been increased to Rs 3 lakhs. Basic tax exemption means that no tax will be charged the income up to Rs 3 lakh. When the income exceeds 3 lakhs, at that time, tax is charged according to the tax slabs given below. For your information, let us tell you that this change in Basic Tax Exemption has been done for the first time in the last 8 years. The new income tax slabs are given in the table below.

• In the budget 2023 - 2024, the limit of income tax rebate has been increased. After Budget 2023 - 2024, no income tax will have to be paid on income up to Rs 7 lakh and the tax paid will be refunded. Earlier, the income tax rebate limit was Rs.5 lakhs and if the annual income was more than Rs.5 lakhs, income tax had to be paid, otherwise tax rebate up to Rs.5 lakhs would be given.  For your information, let us tell you that income tax rebate is mainly tax refund which is refunded to you after filing ITR. Basic tax exemption is 3 lakh rupees, when your salary exceeds 3 lakhs in a year, then direct tax is deducted from the salary. But if your salary is less than 7 lakhs in the whole year, then the deducted money is refunded after filing ITR, which is called tax rebate. These are very important changes in Budget 2023 - 2024.
• Tax payers have also been given the option that if they wish, they can file ITR as per the old tax regime. But by filing according to the new tax regime, you can save more in tax. If we talk about how much the defense person will benefit in filing ITR according to the new tax slab, its details are given in the table below.

• As you can see in the above table, the new tax slab is going to benefit the defense person more in filing ITR.

• The standard deduction which was given to the salaried person in the old tax regime has been continued again in the new tax regime. Under the standard deduction, a salaried person can get a deduction of up to Rs 50,000 and a family pensioner can get a deduction of up to Rs 15,000. This is a commendable initiative for the salaried people in terms of tax. For your information, let us tell you that deduction is that part of income which is not taxed. Tax is calculated on income only after the deduction is subtracted from the total salary. The person taking salary under standard deduction gets an additional exemption of Rs 50000.

• It has also been told in this budget that there has been a lot of improvement in the processing time of ITR and now ITR is processed much faster than before.

This was the important information related to income tax in Budget 2023 - 2024. The points given in this are very basic points. Apart from this, various sub-sections of Income Tax Section 80C are given a lot of deduction ie tax exemption. Due to lack of information, many times defense persons are not able to claim rebate in ITR. If you do not have complete information to file ITR, then always consult a tax expert ie CA so that you can file your tax properly and get tax refund.