New Delhi, Feb 1:
Presenting the interim budget for 2024-25, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday kept the tax rates unchanged and continued to focus on public spending to boost growth.
“As for tax proposals, in keeping with the convention, I do not propose to make any changes relating to taxation and propose to retain the same tax rates for direct taxes and indirect taxes, including import duties,” the Finance Minister announced.
By unifying the tax system, the GST has reduced the compliance burden on trade and industry. As per a recent survey, 94% of industry leaders view the transition to GST as largely positive.
States too have benefited, FM says. She adds that the biggest beneficiary is the consumer as reduction in logistics costs and taxes has helped bring down prices.
Listing out the previous changes made in the tax provisions, FM thanks taxpayers for their continued support.
Under the new tax scheme, there is now no liability for those earning upto Rs. 7 lakh a year. The threshold for presumptive taxation for retail businesses was increased from Rs. 2 crore to Rs. 3 crore.
Corporate tax rate was decreased from 30% to 22% for existing companies and 15% for certain new manufacturing industries.
Filing tax returns has become simpler and easier. The average processing time of returns has been lowered from 93 days in 2013-14 to a mere 10 days, thereby making refunds faster, Ms. Sitharaman says.
With general elections barely months away, salaried taxpayers were expecting some respite, but the status quo on tax slabs and rates are likely to leave them disappointed.
The government has continued its focus on capital expenditure (capex) to support growth and generate more jobs.
Accordingly, the outlay for financial year 2024-25 was increased by 11.1% to Rs 11.11 lakh crore. This accounts for 3.4% of the gross domestic product (GDP).
Among the major projects, Sitharaman announced plans to implement three major economic railway corridor programmes. The proposed corridors are energy, mineral, and cement corridors, port connectivity corridors, and high traffic density corridors.
“The projects have been identified under PM Gati Shakti for enabling multi-modal connectivity. They will improve logistics efficiency and reduce cost,” Sitharaman said.
The minister highlighted the achievements of the government and exuded confidence about winning the upcoming polls.
“We expect that our government, based on its stupendous work, will be blessed again by the people with a resounding mandate,” Sitharaman said
