Proposals will improve ease of doing business

Former President of Bombay Chartered Accountants Society

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M Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget 2023 has made many proposals to further improve the ease of doing business, extended support to taxpayers and curbed certain tax reliefs.

She mentioned that there are several income tax forms for various types of assessees at present and now the government is going to come out with a common income tax form. This is a welcome move from the point of view of taxpayers. Also, tax rate cuts in the new tax regime will help the taxpayers.

One more thing she has done is to tackle the problem of a huge backlog of cases pending before Commissioners (Appeals). She has proposed to create 100 posts of Joint Commissioner (Appeals). This will considerably reduce a load of Commissioners (appeals and help the taxpayers.

A major step has been taken to support the MSME sector. The deduction will be allowed under Section 43B of the IT Act to any assessee only if dues are actually paid to the MSMEs. This move will help the MSMEs working capital in a big way.

Two important capital gains are that sections 54 and 54F allow relief when an assessee invests in residential property without any limit. On account of big-ticket transactions in residential houses happening, there is a proposal to cap the limit to Rs10 crore. Many life insurance policies are now being sold in the nature of investments. High premiums are paid for a period of 10/15 years and after that all money received is exempt. It is proposed that any amount above Rs5 lakh premium per year will be taxable except if the insured expires.

Income arising from market-linked debentures has been treated as long-term capital gain and taxed at 10%. They have been now to be treated as short-term capital gain and taxed accordingly

"In the case of the housing sector, the budget has put a cap on investments. Under section 54 and 54 (f) of the Income Tax Act, one will not be able to get deduction beyond Rs10 crore in Capital Gains Tax, which earlier did not have any limits. So residential units above this margin will not be as lucrative for investment."