How many tax slabs have been proposed in the new alternative scheme of Income…

Concept

A 'tax slab' is one row of a rate schedule - a distinct income range assigned a single rate of tax. The nil/exempt range is still one such row unless a source deliberately restricts the count to 'taxable'/'payable' slabs only.

Application - the statutory rate table

The 'new alternative scheme of Income tax' announced in the Union Budget 2020-21 speech was enacted as Section 115BAC of the Income-tax Act via the Finance Bill 2020. Section 115BAC gives the rate of tax in a table serially numbered Sl. No. 1 to 7:

Counting the slabs

The statute itself numbers these rows serially from 1 to 7 - the Nil range is row Sl. No. 1, not a row excluded from the count. The Budget Speech presented the same structure the same day under a single column headed 'Taxable Income Slab,' again listing all seven ranges - including the Exempt one - as slab rows. So the statutory count of income slabs in the proposed table is seven.

Cross-check

Some later commentary instead says 'six' when it is specifically counting only the non-zero-rate ('taxable'/'payable') rows, deliberately setting aside the nil row - for example when comparing to the 2023-24 Budget's reduction of the payable rows from six to five. That is a narrower, qualifier-attached count ('taxable slabs'), not the plain count of income-range rows the statute itself enumerates. Since the question asks for the number of 'tax slabs proposed' without a taxable/payable qualifier, the statute's own serially numbered table - seven rows - is the best-supported reading.