New Delhi, July 12 -- Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman's maiden budget speech lasted for over two hours but she spent about five minutes on direct taxes. Clearly, after February's populist Interim Budget, there was little room to offer more benefits. But the budget was not entirely without implications for taxpayers. Stating that those in the highest tax brackets needed to contribute more towards nation building, Budget 2019 increased the tax burden on the super-rich with taxable income above '2 crore. It also had an incentive for buyers of affordable homes and pushed a pending National Pension System (NPS) notification making the withdrawal portion from NPS on maturity tax-free.
Increase in surcharge
Surcharge is an additional levy ...