NEW DELHI: The finance ministry on Tuesday released a draft Direct Taxes Code ( DTC ), focused on raising more revenue from high net worth individuals, while leaving the slabs unchanged for others.A new DTC to replace the half-a-century-old Income Tax Act has been in the works since UPA took office in 2004 but the latest draft comes weeks before its second term comes to an end, raising the prospects of the document being junked when a new finance minister takes charge next month.Yet, the message ahead of the elections is that the Congress-led coalition, which is focusing on the common man, favours a higher levy of 35% for individuals and Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) with an annual taxable income of over Rs 10 crore under what will be India's version of the super-rich tax. To add to this, those earning over Rs 1 crore through dividend income will now face an additional tax of 10%. "Under the Income-tax Act as well as in the DTC Bill, 2010, the dividend distribution tax is to be levied at the rate of 15%. This favours high net worth taxpayers who pay only a fraction of their earnings as tax on their investments in the capital market," the income tax department said in a note released with the draft DTC. Currently, promoters of large companies get away without any tax liability as the entities floated by them take over the dividend distribution tax liability.There is more bad news in store for the moneyed as the wealth tax will not extend to financial assets as well although the threshold is being raised from Rs 30 lakh to Rs 50 crore while the levy is proposed to be brought down from 1% at present to 0.25%.But there is good news for the seniors as the added benefits will kick in at 60 years, instead of 65 currently. At present, for those over 65 years, income tax kicks in at Rs 2.5 lakh, while the cut-off is Rs 2 lakh for the younger population.The finance ministry has, however, chosen to leave the tax rates and slabs unchanged, arguing that the recommendations made by the Parliamentary standing committee on finance would cost the exchequer Rs 60,000 crore. Similarly, it has reject the proposal to offer tax deduction for corporate social responsibility-related spending by companies as well as the suggestion to do away with the securities transaction tax.