Union Budget 2019: Tax hike on rich will also hurt global companies

Tax experts said that in FY17 around 80,000 people had reported incomes of over Rs 1 crore

The Union Budget was expected to introduce an estate tax, or maybe, even a banking transaction tax. However, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman took the simpler way out — tax the rich even more. The new tax rates — 39 per cent for incomes of Rs 2-5 crore and a whopping 42.74 per cent for incomes of Rs 5-10 crore — mean an effective increase of 3.12 per cent and 6.8 per cent, respectively.

“We have taken several measures in the past to alleviate the tax burden on small and medium income-earners, as those having an annual income up to Rs 5