Budget 2018: Why salaried women should cheer and others need to worry

Reduction of a woman's contribution to 8% increases her take-home pay; standard deduction of Rs 40,000 offered

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley while presenting the Budget speech for the financial year 2018-2019, once again reinforced Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision for women empowerment. Not only did he offer free LPG connections to 80 million women below the poverty line, but also lowered women’s contribution for Employees Provident Fund (EPF) to eight per cent from 12 per cent earlier.

This means that if a woman, for instance, earns Rs 50,000 per month or Rs 600,000 per annum, she would have to pay Rs 4,000 instead of Rs 6,000 earlier. The take-home pay for her would increase by Rs