Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday proposed widening the lower corporate tax rate of 25 percent to cover companies with an annual turnover of up to Rs 400 crore, up from the current limit of Rs 250 crore. What was proposed Sitharaman told the Lok Sabha, while presenting the Union Budget 2019-20, that the change would bring 99.3 percent of companies operating in India under the lower rate. Only 0.7 percent of firms would remain outside the 25 percent bracket. Old turnover limit for the 25 percent rate: Rs 250Read More

The Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman mentioned plans for a new education policy, a fund for research, skilling and a revamped regulator for higher education, but, an analysis of the speech found, it had little to offer the wider education sector. What the Budget offered Rather than setting out plans for education as a whole, Sitharaman placed these proposals under the heading of “youth”. She credited earlier work by the Modi government for three Indian institutions, two IITs and the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, beingRead More

Homebuyers in Delhi-NCR said the Union Budget 2019-20 offered them little. They had hoped for help with stalled housing projects, but the main measure for housing announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday was a larger deduction on home loan interest. A region hit hard NCR was once a favourite destination for real estate investment. It is now among the areas worst affected by the sector’s slump, with multiple estimates putting the number of stalled flats at five lakh. Buyers have paid for these homes, but construction is stuckRead More

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in her first Budget speech in Parliament on Friday that buyers of electric vehicles will get an additional income tax deduction of Rs 1.5 lakh on interest paid on loans taken to buy them. Push for electric vehicles The measure is part of a wider effort in the Union Budget 2019 to encourage electric vehicles. Sitharaman said the government had already asked the GST Council to cut the tax rate on electric vehicles from 12 percent to 5 percent. The extra deduction, she said, wasRead More

Within hours of the Union Budget raising duties on auto fuels, petrol prices went up by Rs 2.50 a litre and diesel by Rs 2.30 a litre. What the Budget changed Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman increased the special additional excise duty and the road and infrastructure cess on petrol and diesel by Rs 2 a litre each, a move expected to bring in more than Rs 28,000 crore. In her speech she said the easing of crude oil prices from their highs gave her room to revisit the duty andRead More