The General Budget 2014-15 presented by the Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley has raised the personal income-tax exemption limit by ₹ 50,000/- that is, from ₹ 2 lakh to ₹ 2.5 lakh in the case of individual taxpayers, below the age of 60 years. Exemption limit raised from ₹ 2.5 lakh to ₹ 3 lakh in the case of senior citizens. However there is no change in the rate of surcharge either for the corporates or the individuals, HUFs, firms etc. The budget proposes to continue education cess at 3 percent.

Investment limit under section 80C of the Income-tax Act has also been raised from ₹ 1 lakh to ₹ 1.5 lakh and Deduction limit on account of interest on loan in respect of self occupied house property raised from ₹ 1.5 lakh to ₹ 2 lakh. To incentivize small entrepreneurs an Investment allowance at the rate of 15 percent to a manufacturing company that invests more than ₹ 25 crore in any year in new plant and machinery. The benefit to be available for three years i.e. for investments upto31.03.2017. Investment allowance to manufacturing company investing more than ₹ 100 crore announced last year to continue in parallel till 31.03.2015.

To bring greater certainty and to encourage fund manager to shift to India, income arising to foreign portfolio investors from transaction in securities will be treated as capital gains. Concessional rate of 15 percent on foreign dividends without any sunset date will be continued.

To augment low cost long term foreign borrowings for Indian companies, the eligible date of borrowing in foreign currency has been extended from 31.03.2015 to 31.03.2017 for a concessional tax rate of 5 percent on interest payments. Tax incentive extended to all types of bonds instead of only infrastructure bonds.

The budget proposes introduction of a “Roll Back” provision in the Advanced Pricing Agreement (APA) scheme so that an APA entered into for future transactions is also applicable to international transactions undertaken in previous four years in specified circumstances.To remove tax arbitrage, rate of tax on long term capital gains has been increased from 10 percent to 20 percent on transfer of units of Mutual funds, other than equity oriented funds.

60 more Ayakar Seva Kendras will be opened during the current financial year to promote excellence in service delivery. Net effect of the direct tax proposals will result in revenue loss of ₹ 22,200 crore.

Personal tax exemption increase raises basic thresholds while surcharge rates stay unchanged and investment incentives introduced. Basic personal income-tax exemption thresholds and certain deduction limits were raised while surcharge rates remained unchanged; education cess continues. A temporary 15 percent investment allowance was introduced for manufacturing companies investing in new plant and machinery alongside an existing higher-threshold allowance. Income of foreign portfolio investors from securities will be treated as capital gains and a concessional dividend tax rate for foreign investors retained. The concessional tax regime for foreign borrowings was extended and broadened to all bond types, and an APA roll back provision was proposed to apply APAs to certain prior-year transactions.