“The current election which introduced us to this august House today became charged with brimming desire and preference for a bright and strong New India.” With these opening comments, the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman supplied the primary complete budget of the Modi 2.0 government on 5 July 2019. While it’s a revolutionary budget, the steep hike in tax costs for individuals above positive thresholds does now not augur nicely with the underlying subject matter of mild tax prices and extended, voluntary compliance to boom the overall tax base.
Amid high expectancies, the government had a tough mission to balance the expectations and supply a budget that would put India lower back on a faster boom trajectory. The minister acknowledged the contribution of taxpayers and thanked them for their position inside the nation-building. The government did not announce any modifications within the existing character tax slab rates using a practical method. However, numerous proposals to incentivize investments, ease the compliance burden, widening of the tax base were proposed within the budget.
Boost to inexpensive housing
The finances propose an additional deduction of up to `1.Five lakh for interest paid on loans for the purchase of a cheap house subject to the pleasure of following conditions:
•The loan ought to be taken up to 31 March 2020 i.E. Throughout the FY20.
•The stamp responsibility cost of the residential house does not exceed `45 lakhs.
•Individual need to no longer very own any residence at the date of sanctioning of the mortgage.
This deduction is also the present `2 lakh deduction for mortgage hobby on housing loans. The proposal is in line with the flagship initiative of ‘Housing for All by 2022’ of the Indian government.
Disposable finances for pensioners
Under the National Pension Scheme (NPS), individuals can often contribute to a pension account all through their running life. Upon achieving the age of 60 years, the individual is allowed to withdraw up to 60% of the corpus in a lump sum, out of which 40% turned into tax-exempt, and the remaining 20% changed into taxable under the erstwhile tax regime. It has now been proposed to exempt lump sum amounts to 60% of the overall corpus. The thought to exempt whole lump sum withdrawal of NPS is supposed to permit pensioners to have more disposable finances to satisfy their immediate desires post-retirement
Tax incentives on the buy of EVs
To inspire technological improvement and watch for the future of the vehicle-cellular enterprise, the government has brought in a complete proposal to sell electric cars inside the united states. Accordingly, an additional income tax deduction of `1. Five lakh on the interest paid on loans taken for the buy of electric motors concern the situations that the taxpayer needs to now not personal every other electric automobile on the date of sanction of the mortgage. The loan should be sanctioned between 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2023. There are similar proposals to lower the various customs and obligations to lift the electric motors industry.
Surcharge on fantastic-rich
One price range concept that has now not gone nicely with the character taxpayers is the increase in a surcharge at the “awesome-wealthy,” i.E. Man or woman taxpayers having profits exceeding `2 crores. The charge of surcharge on individuals having profited from `2 crores to `5 crores has been extended to 25% and for people having profits exceeding `five crores to 37%. The current price of the surcharge on those taxpayers is 15%. Accordingly, the powerful tax prices on these taxpayers would reach 39% and forty two.74%, respectively.
Taxation on items made to NRIs
To plug the tax leakages by way of presents to a character outdoor India, it has been proposed that items acquired with the aid of a character residing abroad from an individual living in India could now come underneath the tax ambit powerful from 5 July 2019, a challenge to positive exceptions/ treaty reliefs in which relevant.