Bowing to the long standing demand of India Inc, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has abolished the fringe benefit tax and commodity transaction tax.

However, Minimum Allocation Tax (MAT) on book profits has been increased from 10 percent to 15 percent, but with a provision of carrying forward the tax credit on MAT to 10 years from the current seven years.

Meanwhile the Finance Minister proposed to increase the income tax exemption limit for senior citizens by Rs.15,000, for women and others by Rs.10,000 each, while keeping the corporate tax rate unchanged.