Centre rushes Budget through LS, Oppn livid

NEWDELHI: The Lok Sabha passed Finance Bill 2018 without discussion in less than half-an-hour on Wednesday, streamlining tax breaks for start-ups and exempting foreign companies from the need to quote a permanent account number (PAN), amid opposition protests.

Start-ups are allowed 100% deduction of profits for any three of the seven years from their incorporation date. However, they have had to comply with a stipulation that their turnover cannot exceed ₹25 crore in the seven years since incorporation or else they could lose out on the tax benefits. The finance bill now seeks to correct this anomaly.

The budget restricted the requirement of quoting PAN for all transactions over ₹2.5 lakh to only residents. This will improve the ease of doing business for foreign companies, trusts and partnership firms, said Naveen Wadhwa, deputy general manager at Taxmann.com .

Unlike in previous finance bills, there were no significant changes, with the government deciding to not roll back any of the tax provisions, including the controversial levy of long-term capital gains tax at the rate of 10% on the sale of listed shares.

Some minor relief has been given in terms of allowing indexation benefits for unlisted shares in certain tax-neutral transfers like inheritance, demergers and amalgamation.