Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday raised tax slabs in his Union Budget 2009-2010

He proposed to increase the income tax exemption limit for senior citizens by Rs 15,000, for women and others by Rs10,000 each, while keeping the corporate tax rate unchanged.

The exemption limit will now be Rs 240,000 for senior citizens, Rs190,000 for women and Rs 160,000 for others.

Mukherjee also removed the surcharge on income above Rs 10 lakh for personal income tax payers. The surcharge was levied at the rate of 10 percent on income above Rs 10 lakh.

Bowing to the long standing demand of India Inc, the finance minister abolished the fringe benefit tax and commodity transaction tax.

However, Minimum Allocation Tax (MAT) on book profits has been increased from 10 percent to 15 percent, but with a provision of carrying forward the tax credit on MAT to 10 years from the current seven years.

In another relief to the tax payers, the finance minister raised the deduction for maintenance of medical treatment of dependence from Rs 75,000 to Rs 1 lakh.