BT Budget Roundtable: Will FM slash income tax rate from 30% to 25% in next budget?

After the passage of Finance Bill 2023-24, the government may think about slashing income tax rate from 30% to 25% in next budget, said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday.

“On slashing the personal income tax rate from 30 per cent to 25 per cent, she said let this bill get passed in the Parliament first. Thereafter, we may think about it,” she said at the Business Today Budget Roundtable 2023, in conversation with a panel of editors from India Today and Business Today TV.

Sitharaman also said public sector banks have been showing for the past two years that their non-performing assets have gone down and their profits are going up.

While sharing her views at BT Budget Roundtable, she said that health of public sector banks has considerably changed in the past few years. “They haven't even been asking for funds for recapitalisations for the past three years,” she said adding this shows what is the health of public sector bank at present.

She further said that the debt of the country is a concern and the government will bring it down.

“We are still in better position than many other countries,” Sitharaman said. While major growth in the sectors like civil aviation, railways and defence, the minister said that states are also showing interest in capital expenditure.

“Last year in the Lok Sabha talking about the supplementary demand for grants, I openly said that I am even giving Rs 10,000 crore more even for this year, because railways is clearly moving ahead speedily in changing a lot of things which have been waiting for decades,” Sitharaman said.

She also spoke about the 33% rise in capex outlay that was announced in the recent Budget.

"We have seen that for the states what was Rs 15,000 crore two years ago, became Rs one lakh crore last year. And now that has gone up to Rs 1,30,000 crore because states are showing clear appetite also for capital expenditure. Even if I had given more, the states would absorbed it,” she said.

She said that her government came up with programmes that are aimed at "Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas".

“A nationalist government is also to take care of defence without any corruption, any pilferage; many things happening for procurement of defence equipment,” said the minister.

The Finance Minister said that the outlay for PM Awas Yojana is being enhanced by 66 per cent to over Rs 79,000 crore. She said that the budget will help the rural Indian population.