Income-Tax Slabs Remain Unchanged; IT Relief For Senior Citizens Above 75 Years : Budget 2021 Highlights

The Union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman today presented the Budget for financial year 2021-22 in the Parliament. The Minister has put forth certain Tax proposals, as follows: Tax rates, both corporate and individual, remain unchanged. However, there is a relief to Senior Citizens aged 75 year and above, who will not be required to file income tax returns in case of income only from pension or interest.Re-opening of assessment in case of non-serious tax evasion has been reduced to 3 years from 6 years. However, in case of serious tax fraud where there is evidence of concealment of income of 50 lakh or more in a year, assessment may be reopened in 10 years, after approval of Principal Chief Commissioner.A Dispute Resolution Committee will be constituted for resolution of disputes of asseessees with a taxable income up to ₹ 50 lakh and disputed income up to ₹ 10 lakh.A National Faceless Income Tax Appellate Tribunal Centre will be established. All communication between the Tribunal and the appellant shall be electronic. Where personal hearing is needed, it shall be done through video-conferencing.Appropriate Rules will be notified to ease NRIs who when return to India, face issues with respect to their accrued incomes in their foreign retirement accounts.Limit for Tax Audit increased to ₹ 10 crore for those who carry out 95% of their transactions digitally.An agriculture Infrastructure and Development of ₹ 2.5 per litre has been imposed on petrol and ₹ 4 per litre on diesel. Inter alia, the Budget proposal rests on six pillars, viz.: (i) Health and Well-Being; (ii) Physical and Financial capital and infrastructure; (iii) Inclusive Development for Aspirational India; (iv) Reinvigorating Human Capital; (v) Innovation and R&D; (vi) Minimum Govt., Maximum Governance. Key highlights of the six Pillars are listed below: Pillar 1: Health and Well-Being The outlay for health infrastructure has been increased to ₹ 2,23,846 crore in the current budget. This is a relative increase of 137% from last year's budget. A key outline of the allocation is as follows: New Centrally Sponsored Scheme namely, the Prime Minister Aatmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana will be launched with an outlay of ₹ 64,180 crore over 6 years, to develop capacities of health care systems, establish institutions for detection & cure of new and emerging diseases;Main interventions under the scheme include: (i) Support for Health and Wellness Centres, (ii) Setting up Integrated Public Health labs in all districts, (iii) Critical care hospital blocks, (iv) Strengthening of National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC);Supplementary Nutrition Programme & POSHAN Abhiyaan will be merged and Mission POSHAN 2.0 will be launched to strengthen nutritional content, delivery & outcome;Jal Jeevan Mission will be launched with an outlay of ₹ 2.87 lakh crore over 5 years, with an aim to ensure universal water supply in all 4,378 urban local bodies, with 2.86 crore household tap connections and liquid waste management in 500 AMRUT cities;Urban Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 will be launched with an outlay of ₹ 1,41,678 crore over 5 years, focused on complete fecal sludge management, waste water treatment, source segregation, management of waste from urban construction, bioremediation of legacy dump sites;₹ 2,217 crore allocated for 42 urban centres with million plus population to tackle burgeoning problem of air pollution;The pneumococcal vaccine, limited to only 5 states at present, will be rolled out across the country to avert more than 50,000 child deaths annually;₹ 35,000 crore allocated for #COVID19 Vaccine in 2021-'22, with the commitment to provide more funds, if required. Pillar 2: Physical and Financial capital and infrastructure An outlay of ₹ 1.97 lakh crore over 5 years allocated for Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Schemes to create manufacturing global champions in furtherance of Aatmanirbhar Bharat Scheme;Scheme of Mega Investment Textile Parks to be launched, in addition to PLI scheme, to create world class infrastructure in textile sector, with plug-and-play facilities, to create global export champions;To give further thrust to National Infrastructure Pipeline, three concrete actions will be taken, viz.: (i) Creating institutional structures, (ii) Monetizing assets, and (iii) Increasing share of capital expenditure in central and state budgets;Enhanced outlay of ₹ 1,18,101 crore for Central Ministry of Road Transport and Highways;Record sum of ₹ 1,10,055 crore to be provided for Indian Railways;New scheme at a cost of ₹ 18,000 crore for augmentation of public bus transport services;Framework to be put in place to provide electricity consumers alternatives to choose from among more than one power distribution company;Power Distribution Sector Scheme to be launched with an outlay of ₹ 3,05,984 crore over 5 years;Propose to ...

Income-Tax Slabs Remain Unchanged; IT Relief For Senior Citizens Above 75 Years : Budget 2021 Highlights

Akshita Saxena

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