The Finance Minister has introduced a new tax rate structure for salaried employees:
New Tax Rate Structure:
₹0-3 lakh: NIL
₹3-7 lakh: 5 percent
₹7-10 lakh: 10 percent
₹10-12 lakh: 15 percent
₹12-15 lakh: 20 percent
Above ₹15 lakh: 30 percent
Education Budget 2024 Updates: The Central government will provide Rs 1.48 lakh crore for education and employment and skill, announced Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on July 23 while presenting the Budget for the 2024-25 financial year. Financial support for loans upto Rs 10 lakh will be given to students for higher education in domestic institutions. New centrally-sponsored scheme for skilling in collaboration with state governments and industries. About 20 lakh youth will be skilled over a five-year period.
A total of 1,000 ITIs will be upgraded, and course content and design will be aligned to the skill needs of industries.
The FM further announced that the government will provide internships to one crore youth. These interns will get Rs 5000 as stipend and one time assistance of Rs 6000. The companies will bear the cost from their CSR funds govt’s internship scheme.
In the February edition of Union Budget 2024, the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had stressed that there has been an increase in higher educational institutes and women in STEM courses in the last 10 years, which she said were the effects of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 .
However, in a surprise move, the funding for UGC was brought down by 60.99 per cent — it was brought down to Rs 2,500 crore from the previous year’s revised estimate of Rs 6,409 crore. On the other hand, the grants for central universities saw an increase of over Rs 4,000 crore with Rs 15,928 crore allocated for the financial year 2024-25.
Revamped scheme
The Budget also announced that the Model Skill Loan Scheme will be revised to facilitate loans up to ₹7.5 lakh with a guarantee from a government-promoted fund. This measure is expected to help 25,000 students every year.
Official sources in the Ministry of Skills told The Hindu that this scheme is a revamped version of the Skill Loan Scheme that was launched in 2015, but later discontinued. The quantum of finance has been enhanced from ₹5000-₹1,50,000 to ₹7.5 lakh in the new scheme.
As per information provided by the Indian Banks Association with respect to 21 banks, a total skill loan of ₹29.06 crore was disbursed during 2018-19.
Any individual who has secured admission in a course run by Industrial Training Institutes, polytechnics or training partners affiliated to the National Skill Development Corporation, Sector Skill Councils, and State Skill Missions was eligible under the old scheme. Officials said the intricacies of the revamped scheme are yet to be firmed up.