New Income Tax Draft Rules:The draft Income-tax Rules, 2026 have proposed a major relief for salaried employees who receive subsidised meals through office canteens or meal vouchers such as Sodexo (Pluxee) and Zaggle. Earlier, the Income Tax Act allowed a tax exemption of up to Rs 50 per meal. This meant that if an employer provided two meals a day worth Rs 50 each (total Rs 100), the amount was not taxed.
Now, the draft rules propose increasing this limit to Rs 200 per meal. If approved by Parliament, employees could receive up to Rs 1,05,600 per year as tax-free meal benefits.
Shubham Jain, Director, SVAS Business Advisors, explained the calculation to ET Wealth Online.
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If an employer provides two meals per working day:
“So, a tax-free meal benefit of up to Rs 1,05,600 per year is allowed under the proposed rules,” Jain said.
Currently, under the old limit of Rs 50 per meal, the yearly exemption works out to Rs 26,400.
Under the proposed Rs 200 limit, the exemption increases to Rs 1,05,600.
The additional exemption would therefore be:
Rs 1,05,600 − Rs 26,400 = Rs 79,200 per year
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