Parliament Budget Session: Finance Bill 2023 passed in Lok Sabha

NEW DELHI: The Finance Bill 2023, with more than 45 amendments, was passed in the lower house of the Parliament on Friday amid protests by the Opposition for setting up a Joint Parliament Committee (JPC) to investigate the alleged irregularities made by the Adani group. 

The income from the debt mutual fund will be taxed at the applicable rate since it is of the nature of interest income.

"An arbitrage is being created right now where interest income from debt mutual fund (where not more than 35% invested in share in the domestic company) is not distributed and converted into long-term capital gains of 20% (with indexation). In some cases, it comes to even less than 10% due to indexation. Thus many taxpayers are able to reduce their tax liability through this arbitrage. This is sought to be addressed," Finance Ministry said in a note. 

A committee under Finance Secretary TV Somanathan will be formed to look into the issue of pensions to address the needs of employees while maintaining fiscal prudence to protect common citizens, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday in the lower house of the Parliament while speaking on The Finance Bill 2023, which was passed today. 

"I propose to set up a committee under the Finance Secretary to look into the issue of pensions and evolve an approach which addresses the needs of employees while maintaining fiscal prudence to protect common citizens. The approach will be designed for adoption by both the central government and state governments," Sitharaman said on Friday in the Lok Sabha. 

While speaking on the Finance Bill 2023, FM said, "It has been represented that payments for foreign tours through credit cards are not being captured under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) & they escape tax collection at source."

She said that the centre has requested RBI to look into this with a view to bringing credit card payments for foreign tours within the ambit of LRS and tax collection at source thereon. 

In addition, the angel tax would come into effect from April 01, 2024, ie for the Assessment year 2024-25 (FY 2023- 24). However, all concerns raised by stakeholders in the implementation of this proposal would be addressed by the Government. 

"The draft rules related to valuation shall be shared with the stakeholders for their inputs in the next month itself, viz April. Exclusions, as already provided to domestic Venture Capital Funds etc, shall also be considered for similar overseas entities," the Finance Ministry note said.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, the Lok Sabha passed demands for grants authorising expenditure of about Rs 45 lakh crore for 2023-24.