New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made history this morning as she presented a record ninth consecutive Budget in the Parliament.

This will take Sitharaman closer to the record of 10 budgets that were presented by former PM Morarji Desai over different time periods. She will continue to hold the record of presenting the maximum number of budgets on the trot — nine straight budgets under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

She was appointed as India’s first full-time woman Finance Minister in 2019 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi won a decisive second term. After Modi came back to power in 2024 for the third time, Sitharaman continued to retain her finance portfolio.

The Finance Minister kept income tax rates and slabs unchanged following last year’s major tax reforms. While basic tax structure remains the same, Finance Minister announced several measures aimed at simplifying tax compliance and providing relief to taxpayers.

She proposed extending the timeline for revising income tax returns from Dec. 31 to March 31 with a nominal fee.

She also suggested staggered deadlines for filing returns: individuals using ITR-1 and ITR-2 will continue to file by July 31, while non-audit business cases and trusts will have time until Aug. 31.

Motor accident claims

To benefit taxpayers further, any interest awarded by the motor accident claims tribunal to an individual will now be exempt from income tax and the corresponding TDS will be removed.  Non-resident Indians providing capital goods to Indian companies will also enjoy income tax exemption for a period of five years.

Nirmala Sitharaman proposed changes to the tax collection at source (TCS) rates, reducing the rate on sale of overseas tour packages from 5 percent and 20 percent to 2 percent without any minimum amount.

Similarly, TCS on education and medical expenses under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) will drop from 5 percent to 2 percent.  To make compliance easier for small taxpayers, a new rule-based automated system will allow obtaining a lower or nil deduction certificate without filing an application with the assessing officer.

Additionally, taxpayers holding securities in multiple companies will be able to submit Form 15G or 151-I to depositories, which will forward it directly to the relevant companies.