Up until Financial Year (FY) 2011-12, women and men had different income tax slabs with women having to pay slightly less tax. However, from FY 2012-13, this was done away with and tax slabs for men and women were made the same.

To empower women, there are certain monetary benefits offered by the government. These include: property tax rebate, stamp duty concession, lower interest rate on home loans, credit subsidy for house etc.

Up until Financial Year (FY) 2011-12, women and men had different income tax slabs with women having to pay slightly less tax. However, from FY 2012-13, this was done away with and tax slabs for men and women were made the same. Therefore, currently there are no income tax exemptions specifically for women.

Stamp duty concession on registration of property
Some states offer concession on stamp duty charges if a property is registered in the name of a woman. According to the Delhi Government's official website, stamp duty rate (payable at the time of registration of property if it is acquired by way of sale deed/conveyance deed/gift deed) for a male is 6 per cent and for a female is 4 per cent. is calculated on the consideration amount or the circle rates of the property applicable in the area, whichever is higher.

Stamp duty charges vary from one state to another. Therefore, one must check if the state offers any concessional rates when the property is being registered in the name of women.

Property tax rebate
Similarly, certain municipal corporations also offer rebate on property tax. Here also, the property tax rates vary from one municipal corporation to another within a state. Therefore, one must check if there is a rebate offered on property tax for a property registered in a woman's name.

Lower interest rate
Apart from concession on stamp duty and rebate on property tax, banks also offer lower interest rate on home loans for property registered in a woman's name. For instance, State Bank of India (SBI) offers a concession of 5 basis point or 0.05 per cent (1 basis point/bps = 0.01 per cent) for home loans given to women.

Credit subsidy on purchase of house
Similarly, under the government's 'Housing for All' programme, the house for which credit subsidy is given under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) scheme, should be in the name of the woman or a woman should be the co-owner.

Others
The Ministry of Finance recently tweeted about the schemes that have benefitted women in India. For instance, under the Start-up India scheme, more than 81 per cent account holders are women.

Income tax slabs
For many years up until FY 2011-12, women and men had different income tax slabs with women having to pay less tax as compared to men earning the same amount. However, the income tax slabs were made the same from FY 2012-13.

The income tax slabs for FY 2019-20 for both women and men are the same and are given below.

The above mentioned income tax slabs and rates are applicable for individuals - women and men - below the age of 60 years. For individuals above 60 years but below the age of 80 years, the basic exemption limit will be Rs 3 lakh in a financial year.

Given below are the income tax slabs for senior citizens for FY 2019-20

Similarly, individual taxpayers, including women, aged 80 years and above, the basic exemption limit will be Rs 5 lakh in FY 2019-20. Given below is the income tax slab rates applicable for women and men aged 80 years and above in FY 2019-20.