This year's budget was one of give and take - but it was more take than give, especially for the common man. On the one hand, finance minister Arun Jaitley reintroduced standard deduction , gave senior citizens a few reasons to cheer, and increased take home pay of women in the workforce. Budget 2018 has proposed to hike the cess on income tax from 3% to 4% thereby increasing the tax payable by all categories of tax payers. Due to this change, the tax liability for highest tax bracket (assuming Rs 15 lakh income) goes up by Rs 2,625. Standard deduction is essentially a flat amount subtracted from the salary income before calculation of taxable income.

Source: Economic Times February 01, 2018 10:51 UTC