{"id":23144,"date":"2026-02-04T16:11:46","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T10:41:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.universityliving.com\/blog\/?p=23144"},"modified":"2026-02-05T10:50:46","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T05:20:46","slug":"union-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.universityliving.com\/blog\/news\/union-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"Union Budget 2026: Key Implications for Indian Students Applying to Study Abroad"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_82_2 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.universityliving.com\/blog\/news\/union-budget\/#Why_is_it_important_for_Indian_students\" >Why is it&nbsp;important&nbsp;for Indian students?&nbsp;<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.universityliving.com\/blog\/news\/union-budget\/#How_does_University_Living_Help_Students_Studying_Abroad\" >How does University Living Help&nbsp;Students&nbsp;Studying Abroad?&nbsp;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n\n<p>The Union Budget 2026 has made studying abroad even more affordable.&nbsp;All&nbsp;associated&nbsp;taxes have now been reduced for students, and&nbsp;the major changes have been made&nbsp;with regard to&nbsp;the&nbsp;TCS that used to be charged at every major step in the study abroad journey.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Some of the major changes include:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;Zero TCS on education loans from&nbsp;recognised&nbsp;financial institutions (Section 80E)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u27a1\ufe0f&nbsp;Removal of earlier 0.5% TCS above \u20b97 lakh on loan-funded education&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u27a1\ufe0f&nbsp;TCS-free limit for self-funded students increased from \u20b97 lakh to \u20b910 lakh&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u27a1\ufe0f&nbsp;TCS reduced to 2% on amounts above \u20b910 lakh (earlier up to 5\u201320%)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u27a1\ufe0f&nbsp;Lower&nbsp;upfront cost during international university admissions&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u27a1\ufe0f&nbsp;Support for NEP 2020 hybrid education models (India to abroad transfer)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u27a1\ufe0f&nbsp;Hybrid pathways can reduce total education cost by 20\u201340%&nbsp;\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Students must note that these changes are&nbsp;applicable from FY 2026\u201327&nbsp;onwards, and students can avail themselves of these benefits starting from April 1, 2026.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Why_is_it_important_for_Indian_students\"><\/span>Why is it&nbsp;important&nbsp;for Indian students?&nbsp;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The Union Budget was presented\u00a0by the Hon. Finance Minister of India,\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/nsitharaman\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0on February 1, 2026, provided great relief to students who wish to pursue education abroad.\u00a0Overall, students can expect to save at least \u20b95,00,000 to \u20b910,00,000 while paying\u00a0for their education abroad.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Students who are planning to fund their education through education loans can also expect the interest rates to&nbsp;be&nbsp;reduced&nbsp;further.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_does_University_Living_Help_Students_Studying_Abroad\"><\/span>How does University Living Help&nbsp;Students&nbsp;Studying Abroad?&nbsp;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>University Living helps students get&nbsp;accommodation&nbsp;abroad at&nbsp;affordable costs. Getting a place to stay abroad is a big hassle,&nbsp;and students&nbsp;generally face&nbsp;a lot of problems along with the extra financial burden apart from the tuition fees;&nbsp;therefore, the Union Budget&nbsp;2026&nbsp;also helps students save on accommodation costs.&nbsp;Click here to find your perfect home away from home only at <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.universityliving.com\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.universityliving.com\/\">University Living<\/a><\/strong>!&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Union Budget 2026 has made studying abroad even more affordable.&nbsp;All&nbsp;associated&nbsp;taxes have now been reduced for students, and&nbsp;the major changes have been made&nbsp;with regard to&nbsp;the&nbsp;TCS that used to be charged at every major step in the study abroad journey.&nbsp;&nbsp; Some of the major changes include:\u00a0 &nbsp;Zero TCS on education loans from&nbsp;recognised&nbsp;financial institutions (Section 80E)&nbsp; \u27a1\ufe0f&nbsp;Removal [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23146,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[942],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-23144","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.universityliving.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.universityliving.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.universityliving.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.universityliving.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.universityliving.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.universityliving.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.universityliving.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.universityliving.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.universityliving.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.universityliving.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}