The General Budget 2010-11 has carried forward the process of reforms in tax administration in the country. The citizen-centric initiative “Sevottam” which was launched as a pilot project at Pune, Kochi and Chandigarh, will be extended to four more cities this year. The centralized processing centre at Bengaluru is now fully functional and processing around 20, 000 tax returns daily.
The Union Budget 2010-11 presented by the Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee in the Lok Sabha today, provides boost to the research and development (R&D) activity across all sector of economy. Weighted deduction on expenditure incurred on in-house R&D has been enhanced from 150 per cent to 200 per cent.
The Finance Minister, Shri Pranab Mukherjee, while presenting the Union Budget 2010-11, in the Lok Sabha today, announced that the allocation for the Rajiv Awas Yojana has been increased by over 700 per cent from last year’s Rs. 150 crore to Rs. 1270 crore for 2010-11. This Yojana for slum dwellers and urban poor was announced last year to extend support to States that are willing to provide property rights to slum dwellers and is now ready to take off.
In the Union Budget 2010-11 presented by the Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee in the Lok Sabha today, the rate reduction in Central Excise duties has been partially rolled back and the standard rate on all non-petroleum products enhanced from 8 per cent to 10 per cent ad valorem.
Shri Pranab Mukherjee, Union Finance Minister, while presenting the Union Budget in Lok Sabha today, informed that an incentive of additional one per cent interest subvention to farmers who repay short-term crop loans as per schedule, is proposed to be increased to two per cent for 2010-11. Thus, the effective rate of interest for such farmers will now be 5 per cent per annum.
Finance Minister in his Finance Bill 2010 proposed to increase the maximum penalty, leviable under section 271 B for failure to get accounts audited under section 44AB or to furnish a report of such audit, from one lakh rupees to one lakh fifty thousand rupees.
In order to reduce compliance burden of small businesses and professionals, it is proposed to increase the aforesaid threshold limit from forty lakh rupees to sixty lakh rupees in the case of persons carrying on business and from ten lakh rupees to fifteen lakh rupees in the case of persons carrying on profession.
The existing provisions of section 40(a)(ia) of Income-tax Act provide for the disallowance of expenditure like interest, commission, brokerage, professional fees, etc. if tax on such expenditure was not deducted, or after deduction was not paid during the previous year.
For the purposes of the Income-tax Act, “charitable purpose” has been defined in section 2(15) which, among others, includes “the advancement of any other object of general public utility”. However, “the advancement of any other object of general public utility” is not a charitable purpose,
Goods imported in pre-packaged form and intended for retail sale and certain specified goods namely, ready-made garments, mobile phones and watches are being provided an outright exemption from additional duty of customs of 4%. In addition, outright exemption from this duty is also being provided to Carbon Black Feedstock, waste paper and paper scrap.
