The finance bill of Interim Budget 2019 has been approved by the President of India on 21 February, thus making it an act. This means that all the proposals made by the Ministry of Finance in the budget speech on 1 February, including those related to tax will become laws starting 1 April 2019.

These changes include increasing the standard deduction for salaried taxpayers to Rs 50,000 for income earned in the financial year 2019-20 from the present Rs 40,000 and a full rebate of tax payable to those earning up to Rs 5 lakh taxable income in the coming FY.

The threshold on seeking tax exemption on TDS (tax deducted at source) on interest earned from deposits at banks or post office was increased from Rs 10,000 to Rs 40,000 for 2019-20.

Long term capital gains (LTCG) on residential property will be exempt if invested in two residential properties in India provided, it does not exceed Rs 2 crore, and can be claimed only once in a lifetime.

Income tax on notional rent, that is estimated rental income from second residential property that is not self-occupied as well as not let-out, was removed.