Individual taxpayers may not have any reasons to rejoice, but they need not be disappointed either by the budget proposals. As the finance minister said, the current individual tax rates were introduced just 2 years back and it would have been too much to expect a further reduction this year.

However, the finance minister has offered some minor concession by increasing the basic exemption limit modestly by Rs10,000. The revised exemption limits are as below:

Category	Exemption limit in Rs
Individuals	1,10,000
Women assesses	1,45,000
Senior Citizens	1,95,000

At existing tax rates, general and women assesses stand to gain Rs1,000 per year while senior citizens would benefit by Rs2,000 per year.

The only other major change in direct tax policy for individuals is the hike in deduction under section 80D for medical insurance premium paid. This has been increased to Rs15,000 per year from Rs10,000 for general assesses and to Rs20,000 pen year for senior citizens

There was considerable speculation that tax exemption for prescribed investments and expenses under section 80C would be hiked to Rs1,50,000 per year and exemption for interest paid on housing loans would be increased to Rs2,00,000. Both these demands have been ignored by the finance minister

The increase in dividend distribution to 15 per cent would reduce the dividend income at the hands of individual shareholders. Including stock options under FBT may discourage some companies from offering such options to employees in future.