Union Budget 2022: Here are 10 key takeaways

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Budget 202223 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 othersHere are 10 takeaways from the BudgetITR 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 onetime window till two years from the end of the assessment year on payment of taxRollout of 5G services The FM announced in her speech that spectrum auctions will be done in 2022 to facilitate rollout of 5G mobile services by private telecom companiesOn 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 assetsDigital 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 202223 This is a move by the government to have a public digital currencyRelief 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 employeesEpassports The FM in her Budget speech announced that Epassports with electronic chip encoded with important securityrelated data will be introduced in 202223 to increase citizenrsquos convenienceCustoms 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 75 per centRailways highways As a part of Atmanirbhar Bharat Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Budget speech announced that 2000 km of the rail network will be brought under the indigenous worldclass technology KAWACH The national highways network will be expanded by 25000 km in 202223 she addedLongTerm Capital gains The surcharge on the Long Term Capital Gains LTCG has been capped at 15 per centNational Tele Mental Health Programme Sitharaman announced the launch of a National Tele Mental Health program saying that Covid19 pandemic has accentuated mental health problems in people of all ages This will include a network of 23 telemental health centres of excellence with Nimhans being the nodal centre and IIIT Bangalore providing technical supportrdquo she added