CHAPTER VIII • REBATES AND RELIEFS | Income-tax Act, 1961 (as amended by the Finance Act, 2026)
Case Laws & Commentary
Section 88C — Rebate of Income-tax in Case of Women Below Sixty-five Years (Omitted)
Part A (Rebate of income-tax) — omitted by the Finance Act, 2005, w.e.f. 1-4-2006
A. STATUS
Section 88C has been OMITTED by the Finance Act, 2005, with effect from 1 April 2006. It is not operative for any current assessment year.
B. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
Section 88C granted a rebate from income-tax to resident women below sixty-five years of age — a gender-based relief delivered through the rebate route in the pre-AY-2006-07 rebate regime.
C. REASON FOR WITHDRAWAL / SUCCESSOR REGIME
As with the senior-citizen rebate, the women’s rebate was withdrawn when the rebate model gave way to the deduction model from AY 2006-07, and the relief was rebuilt as a higher basic exemption limit for women in the Finance Act rate schedule. (That separate higher slab for women was itself later discontinued as the slabs were unified.)
Successor mechanism: the higher basic exemption threshold for women provided in the post-2005 Finance Act rate schedules (subsequently unified into the common slab structure).
D. FINANCE ACT 2026 — IMPACT NOTE
The Finance Act, 2026 does not revive or amend this provision. It remains omitted/spent for AY 2026-27.
E. CASE LAW
Section 88C ceased to operate from AY 2006-07 and carries no live case-law field for current assessments. No current authority is cited here, and none is invented.
Prepared for the bharattax.co treatise. Omission status verified against the bare Act (income-tax-act-1961-as-amended-by-finance-act-2025.pdf) read with the Finance Act, 2026. Per accuracy discipline, no live case law is invented for an omitted/spent provision; the note records the legislative history, the reason for withdrawal and the successor regime.
Case Laws & Commentary
Section 88C — Rebate of Income-tax in Case of Women Below Sixty-five Years (Omitted)
Part A (Rebate of income-tax) — omitted by the Finance Act, 2005, w.e.f. 1-4-2006
A. STATUS
Section 88C has been OMITTED by the Finance Act, 2005, with effect from 1 April 2006. It is not operative for any current assessment year.
B. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
Section 88C granted a rebate from income-tax to resident women below sixty-five years of age — a gender-based relief delivered through the rebate route in the pre-AY-2006-07 rebate regime.
C. REASON FOR WITHDRAWAL / SUCCESSOR REGIME
As with the senior-citizen rebate, the women’s rebate was withdrawn when the rebate model gave way to the deduction model from AY 2006-07, and the relief was rebuilt as a higher basic exemption limit for women in the Finance Act rate schedule. (That separate higher slab for women was itself later discontinued as the slabs were unified.)
Successor mechanism: the higher basic exemption threshold for women provided in the post-2005 Finance Act rate schedules (subsequently unified into the common slab structure).
D. FINANCE ACT 2026 — IMPACT NOTE
The Finance Act, 2026 does not revive or amend this provision. It remains omitted/spent for AY 2026-27.
E. CASE LAW
Section 88C ceased to operate from AY 2006-07 and carries no live case-law field for current assessments. No current authority is cited here, and none is invented.
Prepared for the bharattax.co treatise. Omission status verified against the bare Act (income-tax-act-1961-as-amended-by-finance-act-2025.pdf) read with the Finance Act, 2026. Per accuracy discipline, no live case law is invented for an omitted/spent provision; the note records the legislative history, the reason for withdrawal and the successor regime.