Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech on Tuesday made key announcements on digital assets, Income Tax Returns, 5G services, among others
Photo for representational purpose. Pic/ istock
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Budget 2022-23 in Parliament on Tuesday. In the shortest Budget speech of about 1 hour and 30 minutes, the FM made announcements on updation of Income Tax returns, taxes to be levied on sale or acquisition of digital assets, rollout of 5G services, and introduction of digital rupee, among others.
Here are 10 takeaways from the Budget:
- ITR correction within 2 years: Despite no changes in tax slabs, Nirmala Sitharaman gave taxpayers an opportunity to rectify errors and update returns within two years from the relevant assessment year. The returns can be revised for omission and mistakes, including declared income not reported. The changes can be made through a one-time window till two years from the end of the assessment year on payment of tax.
- Roll-out of 5G services: The FM announced in her speech that spectrum auctions will be done in 2022, to facilitate roll-out of 5G mobile services by private telecom companies.
- On crypocurrencies, digital assets: A tax of 30 per cent will be levied on income from sale or acquisition of virtual assets. Sitharaman also said that gains from digital assets cannot be mentioned as a replacement of any other income and TDS of 1 per cent will be charged on payments made through digital assets.
- Digital rupee: The Finance Minister announced in Parliament that a digital rupee using blockchain and other technologies will be introduced by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in 2022-23. This is a move by the government to have a public digital currency.
- Relief to govt employees: Tax deduction limit for both Central and state government employees will be increased from 10 per cent to 14 per cent. This will boost social security benefits of state employees and bring them at par with central government employees
- E-passports: The FM in her Budget speech announced that E-passports with electronic chip encoded with important security-related data will be introduced in 2022-23 to increase citizen's convenience.
- Customs duty on gems: Import duty on cut and polished diamonds and gemstones will be reduced to 5 per cent while on sawn diamond to nil in order to boost the sector. Currently, import duty on cut and polished diamonds as well as gemstones is 7.5 per cent.
- Railways, highways: As a part of Atmanirbhar Bharat, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Budget speech announced that 2,000 km of the rail network will be brought under the indigenous world-class technology KAWACH. The national highways network will be expanded by 25,000 km in 2022-23, she added.
- Long-Term Capital gains: The surcharge on the Long- Term Capital Gains (LTCG) has been capped at 15 per cent.
- National Tele Mental Health Programme: Sitharaman announced the launch of a National Tele Mental Health program, saying that Covid-19 pandemic has accentuated mental health problems in people of all ages. "This will include a network of 23 tele-mental health centres of excellence with Nimhans being the nodal centre and IIIT Bangalore providing technical support," she added.
