Tag: Indian Economy

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Finance News

Major Income Tax Rule Changes starting from April 1, 2023

Income Tax Rule 2023-2024
Major Income Tax Rule Changes that came into effect from April 1, 2023.

Various changes to the income tax laws came into effect that will impact Indian taxpayers from April 1, 2023, which marks the start of the new fiscal year 2023-24.

The Indian economy has seen a boom, especially in the tax collections from the past few years. For the Financial Year 2022–2023, direct tax revenue increased by more than 20%. This number is expected to rise with time as the economy is on upside tack.

Nirmala Sitharaman, the Union Finance Minister, made the revisions public at the presentation of the Union Budget on February 1, 2023. A few modifications that were recently made in the Finance Bill 2023 are also expected to have an impact on some payers and entrepreneurs.

Some of the major changes that should affect everyone are as follows:

  1. The new income tax regime will be the default tax regime as of April 1, 2023. Tax assessors will still have the option to choose from the prior regime. For salaried individuals and pensioners, the standard deduction for taxable income exceeding Rs.15.5 lakhs is now set at ₹52,500.
  2. The standard deduction for employees under the old tax regime remains at ₹50,000. However, the finance minister has extended this benefit to pensioners under the new tax regime. Every salaried individual earning ₹15.5 lakhs or more will benefit from this at ₹52,500.
  3. Additionally, the government introduced an optional income tax regime in the 2020-21 Budget. Individuals and Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs) opting for this regime would be taxed at lower rates if they did not avail of specified exemptions and deductions such as house rent allowance (HRA), interest on the home loan, and investments made under Section 80C, 80D, and 80CCD.
  4. The enhancement of the tax rebate limit to ₹7 lakhs from ₹5 lakhs implies that individuals whose income is less than ₹7 lakhs need not invest anything to claim exemptions. Their entire income would be tax-free, regardless of the amount of investment made.
  5. Income tax slabs have undergone significant changes, with new tax rates as follows: nil for income up to ₹3 lakhs, 5% for income between ₹3 lakhs to ₹6 lakhs, 10% for income between ₹6 lakhs to ₹9 lakhs, and 30% for income above ₹15 lakhs.
  6. The leave encashment for non-government employees is exempt up to a certain limit, which was ₹3 lakhs in 2002 and has now increased to ₹25 lakhs.
  7. Investments made in debt mutual funds after April 1, 2023, will be taxed as short-term capital gains. This change will strip investors of the long-term tax benefits that had made such investments popular. Additionally, investments in Market Linked Debentures (MLDs) after April 1 will also be short-term capital assets. The grandfathering of earlier investments will end, and the mutual fund industry will be slightly impacted.
  8. Life insurance premiums over the annual premium of ₹5 lakhs would be taxable from the new financial year, which is from April 1, 2023. However, the new income tax rule will not apply to ULIP (Unit Linked Insurance Plan).
  9. Senior citizens will benefit from increased deposit limits for the senior citizen savings scheme and monthly income scheme. The maximum deposit limit for the former will be increased to ₹30 lakhs from ₹15 lakhs. For the latter, the maximum deposit limit for single accounts will increase to ₹9 lakhs from ₹4.5 lakhs, and for joint accounts, it will increase to ₹15 lakhs from ₹7.5 lakhs.
  10. Lastly, converting physical gold to an Electronic Gold Receipt (EGR) and vice versa will not attract any capital gain tax, effective April 1, 2023. These changes in income tax rules will have a significant impact on taxpayers, and it is advisable to consult with a financial expert to make informed decisions regarding tax planning and investment strategies.

The financial year of 2023 has brought numerous changes to income tax rules in India. Among the significant changes are the new income tax regime, tax rebate limit increase, the elimination of LTCG tax benefits on some debt mutual funds, and alterations to income tax slabs. The changes have now come into effect for everyone in the country. What will be the results of these changes? Only time will tell.

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Startup

Startups in India Need To Be Encouraged To Ensure That They Are Not Afraid of Failure: Piyush Goyal

startup ipo india

New Delhi, March 3: Piyush Goyal, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday said that startups need to be encouraged to experiment and ensure that they are not afraid of failure. In his address at the CII’s Global Bio India Startup Conclave, Goyal said that in some sense, failure also has its importance, particularly in research, innovation and invention. The Minister emphasised that Indian startups need to be encouraged to experiment and only then they will be able to prove their capacity to go beyond in the long run.

“Our startups need to be encouraged to experiment, to go beyond the run of the mill thinking. We need to ensure that our startups are not afraid of failure. I believe that the country should celebrate failure because it is only when somebody fails, he knows how not to do something,” he said.

Emphasising on the talent in rural India, the minister said that the need of the hour is to engage more with rural India as there is a lot of talent lying there. “You cannot have great innovation and invention coming up through just government initiative, we need to have all sections of business involved. The government should act as an enabler, a service provider,” the minister added.

In India, the government is taking steps to promote startups by launching a slew of initiatives to boost the startup ecosystem in the country. It had launched the Startup India initiative in January 2016 to build a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation and entrepreneurship.

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MSME

MSME Sector ‘Growth Engine’ of Indian Economy, Contributes around 30% to GDP, Says RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das (Photo Credits: Wikimedia Commons)

The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises have been gaining momentum in past few years. Government at various levels, the MSME Ministry, Public Sector Banks, and NBFCs among other state agencies have been implementing several initiatives for the development of the sector and encourage more and more people to establish their businesses in the MSME sector. The sector did suffer owing to the coronavirus outbreak and the subsequent lockdown, which lead to curb on all the economic activities across the country. However, the various micro, small and medium enterprises are now on the path of revival and will soon bloom to its full potential soon again. Union Budget 2021: Here Is What the First Paperless Budget Has In Store for the MSME Sector.

Addressing the 185th Foundation Day Celebration of Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India Shaktikanta Das said that the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector has emerged as the growth engine of the economy and is showing signs of revival after the COVID-led degrowth in early part of the current financial year (2020-21). Das added that the sector has been rendered vulnerable by the pandemic necessitating concerted effected effects to combat the stress and focus on the revival of the sector.

He informed that MSME sector -a vast network of around 6.33 Crore enterprises- is contributing about 30 per cent of the nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country and 48 per cent to the total exports of India. “As digital capabilities improve and connectivity becomes omnipresent technological innovation and technology-driven revolution are poised to quickly and radically change India’s economy,”said Das. Adding that the Reserve Bank of India has also made necessary intervention to support economy’s critical sector- referring to the micro, small and medium enterprises. Major Boost to MSME Sector: Govt Trying to Make 5,000 MSME Clusters Under SFURTI Initiate, Says Union Minister Nitin Gadkari.

Meanwhile, the central government on its end has also been contributing towards the development of the MSME sector. In the Union Budget for the upcoming financial year 2021-22, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has proposed an allocation of a fund of over Rs 15,000 Crore to the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, which stands at double the amount apportioned to the sector last fiscal. A reduction in the custom duties has also been proposed, with duties on semis, flat, and long products of non-alloy, alloy, and stainless steels has been reduced to 7.5 per cent uniformly.

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Finance

Union Budget 2021 Should Focus More on Growth Recovery; Fiscal Deficit May Fall to 6.2 Percent in FY22, Says Report

budget 2021-2022

Mumbai, January 28: The annual Union Budget is round the corner. The Union Budget is slated to be presented on Monday, February 1, 2021 while the Economic Survey will be tabled on Friday, January 29, 2021. All eyes will be on the forthcoming Union Budget as it is expected to focus more on putting the economy back on track. According to a report by India Ratings, the focus of the budget will be to get back things to normalcy and not too much on arresting fiscal deficit, which is seen at 6.2 percent in 2021-22, down from 7 percent this year.

The Union Budget 2020-21 had estimated fiscal deficit at Rs 7.96 lakh crore or 3.5 percent of GDP but India Ratings sees it printing in at Rs 13.44 lakh crore or 7 percent if the government cleared its payables and roll over some portion of expenditure to 2021-22.

India Ratings Chief Economist Devendra Pant said that the 2021-22 budget is likely to project a fiscal deficit of 6.2 percent but that will be achievable if nominal growth comes in around 14 percent and real growth prints in at 9.5-10 percent. The study pegged growth at 9.6 per cent for 2021-22 and (-)7.8 per cent for the current financial year 2020-21.

The report said that the fiscal impact of the economic packages worked out to be about Rs 3.5 lakh, or 1.8 percent of GDP. Even without this package, Ind-Ra had estimated that FY21 will witness a revenue shortfall of Rs 60,000 crore due to aggressive estimation of revenue receipts, it added. The government adopted a lose fiscal policy due to the coronavirus pandemic and announced a number of policy measures under Atmanirbhar Bharat packages to support the economy. The report adds that as per the grant-wise expenditure trend, the report estimates revenue expenditure in 2020-21 to be Rs 26.65 lakh crore as against a Budget Estimate of Rs 26.30 lakh crore.

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MSME

MSMEs Backbone of Indian Economy, Govt Aiming to Increase the Sector’s Contribution to India’s GDP to 50%, Says Nitin Gadkari

Nitin Gadkari (Photo Credits: Facebook)

Hyderabad, December 12: Terming Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) as the backbone of Indian economy, MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari said the Modi government is now aiming is to increase the MSME sector’s contribution to the GDP to about 50 percent. The existing contribution of the MSME sector to India’s GDP is 30 percent. While speaking at the inaugural session of the three-day TiE Global Summit (TGS) being held virtually on Tuesday, Gadkari said the MSME sector currently constitutes 48 per cent of total exports from India and the government aims to take it to 60 percent in future.

“MSME is the backbone of Indian economy…a total 30 percent of the GDP in Indian economy is contributed by the MSME. Out of our total exports, 48 percent is also from MSME. At the same time up till now MSME created 11 crore jobs. And that is one of the reasons why MSME is the backbone of the country,” he said. “Now we have decided to make this 30 per cent contribution to GDP to 40 per cent and 48 per cent of the exports contribution to 60 per cent. And we want to create five crore jobs, he added. MSMEs Can Help in Boosting Exports, Says Nitin Gadkari.

During his address, Gadkari said at present, the village industries such as handlooms, handicrafts, Khadi Gram Udyog are generating Rs 80 thousand crore revenues which needs to be taken up to Rs 5  lakh crore in the next few years. Gadkari requested industrialists to invest in India and stressed that the country currently has an excellent network of roads, abundantly available power and water and reformed labour and other administrative laws. According to him, though there is an impact of COVID-19 globally, the Indian industry may get some opportunities out of it.

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Finance

India’s Economic Growth in FY21 May Be Negative or Near Zero Due to Ongoing Coronavirus Pandemic, Says Nirmala Sitharaman

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. (Photo Credit: PIB)
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. (Photo Credit: PIB)

New Delhi, October 28: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said that India’s economic growth in the current financial year may be in the negative zone or near zero amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking at the India Energy Forum of CERAWeek, Sitharaman, however, noted that signs of revival are visible now and India would be among the fastest growing nations in the next fiscal. She added that the festive season will further spur the economy which may lead to positive growth in the third and fourth quarters of the current financial year.

The Finance Minister said that the focus of the government is on public spending to boost economic activity. Earlier this month, she had said that another round of stimulus for the economy is not off the table.

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Process & Business Expansion Sales Startup

Steps Taken by Modi Government to Give Relief to MSMEs, to Accelerate the Wheel of Economy That Slowed Down Due to Lockdown

Business in India | Representational Image Only (Photo Credits: Pexels)

The government has said that the recent steps that it has taken are aimed at giving relief to MSMEs which will in turn accelerate the wheel of economy in India. Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Nitin Gadkari, during a webinar said that the changing the definition of MSMEs, Scheme of Fund of Funds, Champions portal, extended credits to MSMEs will certainly accelerate the wheels of economy which had slowed down due to lockdown in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

During his address, Gadkari informed that loans of about Rs 1,20,000 crore have been disbursed to MSMEs out of Rs 3 lakh crore announced in the relief package. Discussing about the problem of delayed payments, he said that instructions have been given to all Ministries, Departments and PSUs to clear pending bills of MSMEs within 45 days. He also urged all Chief Ministers to issue directions for clearing MSME dues by their State/UT Ministries/Deptts and PSUs on priority. The Minister added that we are closely monitoring the complaints lodged at SAMADHAN Portal also.

Gadkari said this while addressing a Virtual MSME Conclave organized by FICCI Karnataka State Council. The Minister further appealed to all the stakeholders to do away with all kinds of fear and negativity and assured that government is doing everything possible to make the country a super economic power. The Minister informed the participants of the webinar that we are working on the idea of a Land Bank and Social Micro Finance Institution which will be very helpful for entrepreneurs and persons who want to run small shops and businesses.

While discussing Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan as envisaged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gadkari said that handloom, handicrafts, khadi industries and agro-based industries should be encouraged especially in 115 aspirational districts in India. He said planning will be taken up for special policies for agricultural, rural and tribal sector because they have huge potential of creating employment.