In the interim budget, the then acting finance minister Piyush Goyal had provided several income tax sops to the middle-class and introduced zero tax liability for those in the ₹5 lakh income bracket. In its party manifesto, released before the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had promised to lower income tax rates further. "With improved compliance and increased tax base, the tax to GDP ratio has reached 12%, highest in the recent past, up from 10.1% in 2013-14. Ever since the Narendra Modi government came into power in 2014, the income tax burden of the middle-class has reduced in subsequent budgets. In the first budget of Modi 1.0, presented by Arun Jaitley, income tax exemption limit was raised from ₹2 lakh to ₹2.5 lakh.

Source: Mint July 04, 2019 12:22 UTC