Finance Act, 2003Re-read 2 September 2026Previous year 2002-03

Income-tax rates for assessment year 2003-04

The rates Finance Act, 2003 charged on the income of the previous year 2002-03, 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

Section 2 mentions no cess of any kind and states no 'maximum amount which is not chargeable to income-tax'; the Rs. 50,000 exemption is taken from the Nil row of Part I, Paragraph A. No cess existed in 2003. Paragraph A has no separate table for women or for senior citizens in this year.

Which Act set these rates

Act

Finance Act, 2003

Assessment year

2003-04

Income of the previous year

2002-03

What was read

the charging section and the First Schedule

The Act itself

Finance Act, 2003 in this library

Finance Act, 2003 charged income-tax for the assessment year commencing 1 April 2003. What it charged was the income of the previous year 2002-03. 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, artificial juridical person (Part I, Paragraph A)

Maximum amount not chargeable to income-tax: Rs 50,000

Total income	Rate of income-tax
Up to Rs 50,000	Nil
Rs 50,001 – Rs 60,000	10%
Rs 60,001 – Rs 1,50,000	20%
Rs 1,50,001 and above	30%

Paragraph A as printed: does not exceed Rs. 50,000 - Nil; exceeds Rs. 50,000 but does not exceed Rs. 60,000 - 10 per cent of the amount by which the total income exceeds Rs. 50,000; exceeds Rs. 60,000 but does not exceed Rs. 1,50,000 - Rs. 1,000 plus 20 per cent of the amount by which the total income exceeds Rs. 60,000; exceeds Rs. 1,50,000 - Rs. 19,000 plus 30 per cent of the amount by which the total income exceeds Rs. 1,50,000.

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

Total income	Surcharge on the income-tax
Rs 60,001 and above	5%

Part I, Paragraph A: '(i) in the case of every individual or Hindu undivided family ... having a total income exceeding sixty thousand rupees, be reduced by the amount of rebate of income-tax calculated under Chapter VIII-A, and the income-tax as so reduced, be increased by a surcharge for purposes of the Union calculated at the rate of five per cent of such income-tax; (ii) in the case of every person other than those mentioned in item (i), be increased by a surcharge for purposes of the Union calculated at the rate of five per cent of such income-tax'. Paragraphs B, C, D and E each carry a surcharge of 5 per cent of such income-tax.

Cess

No cess is recorded for this year.

Marginal relief

'Provided that in case of persons mentioned in item (i) above having a total income exceeding sixty thousand rupees, the total amount payable as income-tax and surcharge on such income shall not exceed the total amount payable as income-tax on a total income of sixty thousand rupees by more than the amount of income that exceeds sixty thousand rupees.'

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	35 per cent of the total income; surcharge 5 per cent of such income-tax
Foreign company	50 per cent on royalties and fees for technical services under the specified approved agreements; 40 per cent on the balance of the total income; surcharge 5 per cent of such income-tax
Firms and limited liability partnerships	35 per cent on the whole of the total income; surcharge 5 per cent of such income-tax (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 30 per cent of the amount by which the total income exceeds Rs. 20,000; surcharge 5 per cent of such income-tax
Local authorities	30 per cent on the whole of the total income; surcharge 5 per cent of such income-tax (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 2002-03 (Finance Act, 2002): the single regime’s exemption limit is unchanged at Rs 50,000.
The top slab rate is unchanged at 30%.
The surcharge goes from 1 tier topping out at 2% to 1 tier topping out at 5%.
No cess is recorded for either year.
The company rates are stated differently this year; read both years’ wording rather than taking a single number from either.
The firm rate are stated differently this year; read both years’ wording rather than taking a single number from either.
The co-operative society rates are stated differently this year; read both years’ wording rather than taking a single number from either.
The local authority rate are stated differently this year; read both years’ wording rather than taking a single number from either.

Sources

The Income Tax Department’s own records for this Act. These are the documents the figures above were read out of.

The department’s index of Finance Acts is at https://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/finance-acts.

The years either side

← AY 2002-03 · AY 2004-05 →

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.