Budget 2023-24: Payment Received By Agniveers From Agniveer Corpus Fund Proposed To Be Exempted From Taxes

In her Budget 2023-24 speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed to make various amendments in order to allow deduction from the computation of total income of Agniveer, any contribution made by him or the Central Government to his Agniveer Corpus Fund account and to exempt from tax any payment received by Agniveer or his nominee, from the Agniveer Corpus Fund.It is proposed to insert a new clause (12C) in section 10 of the Income Tax Act to provide that any payment received from the Agniveer Corpus Fund by a person enrolled under the Agnipath Scheme, 2022, or the nominee of the person shall be exempted from income tax.It was further proposed to insert a new section 80 CCH. It provides that an assessee, being an individual enrolled in the Agnipath Scheme and subscribing to the Agniveer Corpus Fund on or after the 1 November, 2022, shall be allowed a deduction of the whole of the amount deposited by him and also the amount contributed by the Central Government to his account in the Agniveer Corpus Fund, from his total income.The government proposed that in the new tax regime of section 115 BAC an individual enrolled in the Agnipath Scheme and subscribing to the Agniveer Corpus Fund shall get a deduction of the government contribution to his Seva Nidhi [section 80 CCH(2)].The Ministry of Defence has introduced the Agnipath Scheme, 2022 (the Scheme) for enrolment of Agniveers in Indian Armed Forces. It came into force on 1st November, 2022. In pursuance of the Government's decision to implement the Agnipath Scheme, 2022, the Competent Authority has decided to create a non-lapsable dedicated Agniveer Corpus Fund in the interest-bearing section of the Public Account head. The package given to an Agniveer from Agniveer Corpus Fund is called ‘Seva Nidhi’.In the Scheme, the Agniveer Corpus Fund is defined as a Fund in which consolidated contributions of all the Agniveers and matching contributions of the Government along with interest on these contributions would be held in their respective accounts. The scheme will be administered and the Fund will be maintained under the aegis of the Ministry of Defence (MoD).The amendments will take effect from the 1st day of April, 2023 and will apply in relation to assessment year 2023-24 and subsequent assessment years.For reading more on tax cases, please visit LiveLaw's exclusive tax section.

Budget 2023-24: Payment Received By Agniveers From Agniveer Corpus Fund Proposed To Be Exempted From Taxes

Mariya Paliwala

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