While the proposed law in India has been largely welcomed, industry body Assocham today said the government should avoid over-kill and rush job" in its efforts to check foreign assets' concealment.
A fresh deduction of Rs 30,000 has been provided for the amount paid on account of medical expenditure incurred on health of a very senior citizen where no amount is paid towards mediclaim premium.
A sum of more than Rs 7 crore has been earmarked for anti-corruption body Lokpal to meet its expenditures in 2015-16, showing a three-fold hike over the allocation made for the ongoing fiscal.
Indians holding black money abroad will be given a last chance to disclose their overseas bank accounts or wealth to the government and avoid a jail term.
Budget 2015-16 is good for corporates not by being too generous to them, but by bringing policy clarity and continuing on the path of making business easier to do. P Chidambaram is wrong to claim corporates are major gainers from tax cuts.
ITC suffered the most during the special session of trading with additional excise duty being levied on the tobacco industry.
Keeping PCs out of the excise duty structure similar to tablets will demotivate the existing manufacturing facilities that have been operating in India for long, says MAIT.
US-based think-tank Moody's today said India's sovereign rating will not be impacted by the delayed fiscal consolidation programme announced in the Budget 2015-16.
“This was probably the first budget where the FM concentrated more on the long-term measures than simply talk numbers about the sector.
As BJP leaders and ministers Friday showered praises on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for presenting a "historic", "pro-poor, pro-farmer" or "pragmatic" budget, the opposition Congress party called it "corporate friendly".
Budget 2015 does cover some part of these priorities. However, some concerns remain and we would urge the government to address these issues on priority."
Experts feel the initiative to provide broadband connectivity to 2.5 lakh gram panchayats by December next year is a ‘transformative step’ taken by the government to connect rural citizens in information-dark areas of India.
Like in the past the levy on tobacco products has been hiked, making it more expensive for smokers and other tobacco product users. Excise duty on cigarettes has been increased by 25 percent for cigarettes of length not exceeding 65 mm and by 15 percent for cigarettes of other lengths. This is the fourth consecutive budget which has raised excise duty on tabacco by more than 18 percent hike in duty.
The budget has not provided any additional relief via increased income tax deduction limit or on repayment of housing loans. The regime on these fronts, which was announced during the previous budget from eight months ago remains unchanged. This is a disappointment, since there were expectation that the Finance Minister would further increase either or both of these limits and thereby address the reality of high property prices in India.
Many of the announcements made in previous budget, which were geared to minimize/resolve transfer pricing litigation are yet to be implemented.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday announced a slew of measures which experts said would help “energise” the banking system further, power recovery of loans and streamline decision-making.
Finance minister announces gold monetisation scheme and a sovereign gold bond apart from steps to boost recycling of the metal.
The attractive pre-election campaign on minimum government does not get reflected in the budget.
The reaction to the Budget among the middle class was mixed with some calling it ‘forward looking’ which ‘will help the economy in the long run’. The dominant mood, however, was one of dismay.
Guilty could face rigorous imprisonment for 10 years while penalty will be 300 percent of the tax evaded
In his first full-year budget since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's landslide election victory last May, Jaitley said India's economy was about to take off. Modi tweeted that the budget would "further reignite our growth engine".
Jaitley disappointed Congress. It’s not about the disappointment over the budget by a rival party. It's about how Jaitley gave them no reason to complain.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley did not really bring in acche din for the salaried class as the income tax slabs remain unchanged but it did offer some respite by doubling monthly transport allowance ( which is tax free) to Rs 1600 as well as offering deductions under section 80 (D)
Around 3% of Indians pay income tax. If more corporates are likely to pay more tax at lower rates, can't the same assumption be made for individual tax payers as well? Further, like the corporates income tax laws, can't the personal income tax laws simplified as well?
Evaluating the budget is always a tricky job and ideally one should score the earlier budget based on realization versus budgeted numbers.
Aviation has been largely ignored in the Union Budget for 2015-16, as most of the sector's demands such as giving airlines infrastructure status and bringing down taxation on MROs have been ignored.
The finance minister wants you to save more for your twilight years; pension funds and health insurance firms are the biggest beneficiaries.