Implications of marginal relief

Although the marginal relief has no relevance now, it will continue to appear in the law books and is invoked again if such a situation arises when it is required again say a surcharge or cess may be levied on certain slabs of income for a specific reason. Sometimes in situation where government may need to raise revenue it could levy some surcharge on an income in excess of certain amount. It will invoke the marginal relief clause that is still existing in the law.

but doesnt it create a confusion for students....as it did to me?

The entire IT Act as it stands is a confusion with all ammendments and deletions etc. This is a provision that they chose to retain. They can levy a surcharge or cess in emergency situations without going through the annual budget. Therefore they retained this provision. If they delete it,they would need to again insert it at the time of budget.

This is like situations we had in the past like Kargil war. In case of such emergencies the FM may take route of levying say a surcharge in the interim to cover the cost and may levy it only on incomes over a certain amount. In that case the provision of marginal relief at least exists and he does not have to run to the parliament to insert it again. you are a student today therefore you have not seen the evolution of IT Act to what it is today. There was a time there was no marginal relief and earnin a rupee more than the slab could make a hole in your pocket in terms of thousands.