Big leap in tax exemption limit: Modi govt breaks away from UPA’s style of offering small reliefs

The Narendra Modi government 3.0 has continued the focus on income tax relief for the salaried class initiated by the NDA government in 2014, breaking away from the UPA’s practice of offering small doses of tax savings to the middle class. 

The Union Budget 2025-26 presented by Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman declared that there will be no income tax payable up to a total income of Rs 12 lakh -- average income of Rs 1 lakh per month other than special rate income such as capital gains -- under the new regime. This limit will be Rs 12.75 lakh for salaried taxpayers, due to a standard deduction of Rs 75,000.

The jump in income tax exemption limit, under the new tax regime, from a salary of Rs 7 lakh per annum to Rs 12 per annum, is the biggest recorded since 2005 of the UPA era.

Under the UPA government, the income tax exemption limit was Rs 1 lakh in 2005 and it took the Manmohan Singh government seven years to double this exemption limit to Rs 2 lakh in 2012.

Keeping the long-standing demand from the salaried, middle-class taxpayers, PM Modi increased the income tax exemption limit by 25 per cent to raise it to Rs 2.5 lakh in 2014.

Modi 2.0 started in 2019 with another mega bonanza for the middle-class tax payer with the income tax exemption limit being raised from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh.

The Modi government’s endeavour to keep pace with expectations of young, aspirational India’s workforce saw the introduction of the less complicated new tax regime in FY 2020-21 to offer lower tax rates to taxpayers, without any common deductions and exemptions.

The new tax regime was based on the notion that the millennial generation exhibits a proclivity towards spending rather than saving.

In 2023, FM Sitharaman raised the rebate limit by Rs 2 lakh, effectively increasing the income tax exemption limit under the new regime to Rs 7 lakh.

Buoyed by the increase in tax compliance by the salaried class, FM Sitharaman has offered the latest bonanza for the new tax regime payees and raised the effective exemption limit to Rs 12 lakh.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah hailed the big jump in income tax exemption limit announced in Union Budget 2025-26 and said in a post on X, “The middle class is always in PM Modi’s heart. Zero Income Tax till Rs 12 Lakh Income. The proposed tax exemption will go a long way in enhancing the financial well-being of the middle class. Congratulations to all the beneficiaries on this occasion.”