No tax for annual income upto Rs 5 lakh, says Piyush Goyal

"So people earning up to Rs 6.5 lakh may not have to pay tax if they make investments in specified savings". The gratuity limit has also been increased to Rs 30 lakh.

And, for a family of three comprising husband, wife and a senior citizen, this may result in nearly no tax till a combined income of Rs 25 lakh per year. So, only those whose total income does not exceed Rs 5 lakh will be eligible for the benefit.

All those earning up to Rs 5 lakh a year will now receive a full tax rebate.

People earning larger incomes do not benefit from the changes to the tax rules because there is no change in the slabs, but only a rebate, according to experts. Income from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh was taxed at 20 per cent and above Rs 10 lakh was at 30 per cent.

Budget 2019 jokes and memes have taken over Twitter. "I can tell you that this proposal (Rs 5 lakh income rebate) will be applicable from the coming financial year of April 1 after it is passed in this budget session of Parliament", Chandra said.

"All interest income above Rs 40,000 from bank deposits will now get taxed, and not Rs 10,000".

The CBDT boss said Friday's budget had something for the salaried class of taxpayers too.

Tax collections up from Rs 6 lakh crore in 2013-14 to more than Rs 12 lakh crore now, says Goyal.

Goyal also announced an increase in the standard deduction, which provide for employee expenses, from Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000.

Budget for railways pegged at Rs 64,000 crore.

Goyal also proposed that benefit of rollover of capital tax gains be increased from investment in one residential house to that in two residential houses, for a taxpayer having capital gains of up to Rs 2 crore. "As this was an interim budget, we had a very limited space and the target sectors were the middle-class and lower middle class", he said.