The Hon’ble Finance Minister presented the Union Budget 2021 in the Parliament today on 01.02.2021.
A. General:
- PM Aatma Nirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana to be launched with an outlay of Rs. 64,180 crore over 6 years.
- Debt financing for investment in InvITs and REITs to be enabled further
- Govt. to provide 2 lakhs crores to States and autonomous bodies for capital expenditure
- 7 Mega Investment Textile Parks to be launched in addition to the Production Linked Incentive Scheme in 3 years
- Govt. committed to investing Rs. 1.97 lakh crores to uplift manufacturing companies under ‘Production Linked Incentive’ scheme
- As per vehicle scrapping policy, vehicles to undergo fitness tests after 20 years in case of personal vehicles, 15 years in case of commercial vehicles
- Vehicle scrappage policy; details to be shared separately
- FM announces outlay of Rs 2.87 lakh crores for Jal Jeevan Mission
- Fund of more than Rs. 3 lakh crores allotted to power distribution sector
- Debt financing of INvits and Reits by FPIs will be enabled by making suitable amendments in relevant legislations
- Govt. to consolidate SEBI Act, 1992, Depositories Act, 1996 and SCRA into a single Securities Market Code
- FDI in the Insurance sector to be increased from 49% to 74% with foreign control but with safeguards
- SEBI will be notified as a regulator for a gold exchange
- Another ₹20,000 crore set aside to recapitalise government banks
- FM proposes the decriminalization of LLP Act, 2008
- E-court shall be implemented to strengthen the NCLT
- Asset Reconstruction Company and Asset Management Company to help banks tackle bad loans
- Definition of small companies to be raised by increasing the capital limit from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 2 crore and turnover from Rs 2 crore to Rs. 20 crores
- Govt. provides a big boost to the Startups by allowing Non-Residents to incorporate OPCs in India
- ‘Capital’ and ‘Turnover’ qualifying criteria for ‘One Person Company’ are proposed to be removed
- Surplus land with government ministries and public sector enterprises will be monetised via direct sale or concessions
- FM proposes to strategically divest two PSU banks and one General Insurance Co.; Divestment Target for F.Y. 22 set at Rs. 1.75 lakh crore
- Over Rs 75,000 crore paid to wheat farmers in 2020-21, 43.36 lakh benefited from the scheme
- BPCL, CONCOR, Pawan Hans, Air India divestments to be completed in FY 2021-22
- Schools will be set up with partnership with NGOs and Private Schools Margin money requirement for loans will reduced for SC/STs to 15% from 25%
- Minimum wages to be applied to all categories; compliance burden on employer proposed to be reduced
- Period of stay to determine the ‘Residential Status’ of NRIs to be reduced from 182 days to 120 to attract foreign investment
- Govt. aims to bring the fiscal deficit below 5% of the GDP by 2025-26. The current fiscal deficit was at 9.5% of GDP
B. Direct Taxes:
- Senior citizen with the age of 75 years an above and have only pension income shall be exempted from filing of ITR.
- Reopening of assessment is restricted to 3 years from the 6 years.
- New dispute resolution shall be constituted for small tax payers having taxable income 50Lacs and tax dispute Rs. 10 Lacs.
- ITAT shall go faceless.
- Re-assessment can be done within 10 years if the income escaping assessment exceeds Rs. 50 lakhs and approval of Principal CIT is must
- Threshold limit for exemption from tax audit for digital transactions increased from Rs. 5 Crores to Rs. 10 Crores.
- Advance tax liability on Dividend shall arise only after the dividend is declare.
- Eligibility to claim Section 80EEA deduction extended by one year an additional amount of Rs. 1.5 Lacs
- Govt. to allow ‘Notified Infrastructure Debt Funds’ to issue tax efficient zero-coupon bonds to boost funding to infrastructure
- Exemption to start-up entities extended by one more year u/s 80IAC
- No deduction for any delay in deposit of employee’s contribution to the welfare schemes
- Threshold exemption limit under section 10(23C) for Charitable Institution raised from Rs. 1 Crore to Rs. 5 Crore
C. Indirect Tax
- Record collection in GST in the last few months due to various measures such as E-Invoicing, increase in capacity of GSTN
- More than 400 old exemptions under Customs would be reviewed
- Custom duty on gold and silver shall be rationalised
- Reducing duty on copper scrap halved to 2.5%. Duties on raw materials for the textile sector will also be cut.
- The duty on nylon and yarn cut to 5%
- Duty on steel scrap revoked until March 22
- Raising customs duty on solar inverters increased to 20% from 5% to boost the domestic production
- Customs duty rate on cotton increased from Nil to 10%