Finance Act, 1997Re-read 2 September 2026Previous year 1996-97
Income-tax rates for assessment year 1997-98
The rates Finance Act, 1997 charged on the income of the previous year 1996-97, taken from the Act’s own charging section and First Schedule.
Independently re-read on 2 September 2026
A second pass went back to the department’s text at the sources listed at the foot of this page and read these figures again. That check is recorded in the record itself as verified_on: 2026-09-02.
What this year’s reading did not reach
No cess of any kind exists in this Act (the Education Cess was first imposed in 2004), so no cess is recorded. Section 2 does not state a 'maximum amount which is not chargeable to income-tax'; the Rs. 40,000 exemption is taken from the Nil row of Part I, Paragraph A itself. There is no separate exemption limit for senior citizens in Paragraph A of this year, and no rebate provision appears in the Finance Act (rebates were in Chapter VIII-A of the Income-tax Act).
Which Act set these rates
ActFinance Act, 1997
Assessment year1997-98
Income of the previous year1996-97
What was readthe charging section and the First Schedule
Finance Act, 1997 charged income-tax for the assessment year commencing 1 April 1997. What it charged was the income of the previous year 1996-97. The two are a year apart and the difference matters: a table headed by the wrong one is useless.
The slabs
Single
individual, Hindu undivided family, association of persons, body of individuals (Part I, Paragraph A)
Maximum amount not chargeable to income-tax: Rs 40,000
| Total income | Rate of income-tax |
|---|
| Up to Rs 40,000 | Nil |
| Rs 40,001 – Rs 60,000 | 15% |
| Rs 60,001 – Rs 1,20,000 | 30% |
| Rs 1,20,001 and above | 40% |
Paragraph A as printed: (1) does not exceed Rs. 40,000 - Nil; (2) exceeds Rs. 40,000 but does not exceed Rs. 60,000 - 15 per cent of the amount by which the total income exceeds Rs. 40,000; (3) exceeds Rs. 60,000 but does not exceed Rs. 1,20,000 - Rs. 3,000 plus 30 per cent of the amount by which the total income exceeds Rs. 60,000; (4) exceeds Rs. 1,20,000 - Rs. 21,000 plus 40 per cent of the amount by which the total income exceeds Rs. 1,20,000. Paragraph A contains no surcharge on individuals or Hindu undivided families.
Senior citizens, very senior citizens, and women
Only where the Act for this year set a separate threshold or a separate table. Where it did not, this page says so.
Resident senior citizens
This year’s record carries no separate table or threshold under this head.
Resident very senior citizens
This year’s record carries no separate table or threshold under this head.
Resident women
This year’s record carries no separate table or threshold under this head.
Surcharge
No surcharge is recorded for this year.
No surcharge on individuals or Hindu undivided families for this year: Part I, Paragraph A carries no surcharge provision. The only surcharge in Part I is in Paragraph E, on domestic companies.
Cess
No cess is recorded for this year.
Marginal relief
No marginal-relief provision is recorded for this year.
Companies, firms, co-operative societies and local authorities
Reproduced in the Act’s own words, because these rates carry conditions a single percentage cannot.
| Assessee | Rate as the Act states it |
|---|
| Domestic company | 40 per cent of the total income; increased by a surcharge of seven-and-a-half per cent of such income-tax in the case of every domestic company having a total income exceeding seventy-five thousand rupees |
| Foreign company | 50 per cent on royalties and fees for technical services received under an agreement approved by the Central Government made before the 1st day of April, 1976; 55 per cent on the balance of the total income |
| Firms and limited liability partnerships | 40 per cent on the whole of the total income (Part I, Paragraph C) |
| Co-operative societies | Part I, Paragraph B: total income not exceeding Rs. 10,000 - 10 per cent of the total income; exceeding Rs. 10,000 but not exceeding Rs. 20,000 - Rs. 1,000 plus 20 per cent of the amount by which the total income exceeds Rs. 10,000; exceeding Rs. 20,000 - Rs. 3,000 plus 35 per cent of the amount by which the total income exceeds Rs. 20,000 |
| Local authorities | 30 per cent on the whole of the total income (Part I, Paragraph D) |
What changed from the year before
Worked out by comparing this record with the one for the preceding assessment year in this collection. Where a figure is absent from either record, that is said rather than guessed.
- Against assessment year 1973-74 (Finance Act, 1973) — the previous record in this collection, 24 assessment years earlier, because the years in between were not read — the comparison below is across that gap and not year on year.
- Against that year: a regime described as ‘single’ carries an exemption limit of Rs 40,000 this year; the previous record carries no limit under that name.
- The top slab rate cannot be compared: AY 1973-74 carries no slab table.
- Neither year records a surcharge on individuals.
- No cess is recorded for either year.
- The company rates are recorded this year; the previous record does not reach them, so no change can be stated.
- The firm rate are recorded this year; the previous record does not reach them, so no change can be stated.
- The co-operative society rates are recorded this year; the previous record does not reach them, so no change can be stated.
- The local authority rate are recorded this year; the previous record does not reach them, so no change can be stated.
What this page is, and what it is not
The figures are the Finance Act’s own. Every rate, threshold and exemption on this page was taken out of the Income Tax Department’s own text of the Act that charged the year — the charging section and the First Schedule — and the records we read are linked under Sources on each year’s page. The writing around the figures is ours: the arrangement, the headings, the comparison with the year before and every sentence of explanation. Those are not the Act.
These tables are for orientation. The Act governs. A rate table is a finding aid, not the law. The Act, its First Schedule and the provisos in it decide what is payable, and a table cannot carry the provisos. If you are about to rely on a figure here — in a return, in a computation, in a reply to a notice — open the source linked on the year’s page and read the figure in the Act for yourself. Where a record did not reach a rate, this library says so rather than filling the gap.