Income-Tax Slabs Remain Unchanged; IT Relief For Senior Citizens Above 75 Years : Budget 2021 Highlights

The Minister has put forth certain Tax proposals, as follows:

• Tax rates, both corporate and individual, remain unchanged. However, there is a relief to Senior Citizens aged 75 year and above, who will not be required to file income tax returns in case of income only from pension or interest.
• Re-opening of assessment in case of non-serious tax evasion has been reduced to 3 years from 6 years. However, in case of serious tax fraud where there is evidence of concealment of income of 50 lakh or more in a year, assessment may be reopened in 10 years, after approval of Principal Chief Commissioner.
• A Dispute Resolution Committee will be constituted for resolution of disputes of asseessees with a taxable income up to ₹ 50 lakh and disputed income up to ₹ 10 lakh.
• A National Faceless Income Tax Appellate Tribunal Centre will be established. All communication between the Tribunal and the appellant shall be electronic. Where personal hearing is needed, it shall be done through video-conferencing.
• Appropriate Rules will be notified to ease NRIs who when return to India, face issues with respect to their accrued incomes in their foreign retirement accounts.
• Limit for Tax Audit increased to ₹ 10 crore for those who carry out 95% of their transactions digitally.

• An agriculture Infrastructure and Development of ₹ 2.5 per litre has been imposed on petrol and ₹ 4 per litre on diesel. 

Inter alia, the Budget proposal rests on six pillars, viz.: (i) Health and Well-Being; (ii) Physical and Financial capital and infrastructure; (iii) Inclusive Development for Aspirational India; (iv) Reinvigorating Human Capital; (v) Innovation and R&D; (vi) Minimum Govt., Maximum Governance.

Key highlights of the six Pillars are listed below:

Pillar 1: Health and Well-Being

The outlay for health infrastructure has been increased to ₹ 2,23,846 crore in the current budget. This is a relative increase of 137% from last year's budget. A key outline of the allocation is as follows:

• New Centrally Sponsored Scheme namely, the Prime Minister Aatmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana will be launched with an outlay of ₹ 64,180 crore over 6 years, to develop capacities of health care systems, establish institutions for detection & cure of new and emerging diseases;
• Main interventions under the scheme include: (i) Support for Health and Wellness Centres, (ii) Setting up Integrated Public Health labs in all districts, (iii) Critical care hospital blocks, (iv) Strengthening of National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC);
• Supplementary Nutrition Programme & POSHAN Abhiyaan will be merged and Mission POSHAN 2.0 will be launched to strengthen nutritional content, delivery & outcome;
• Jal Jeevan Mission will be launched with an outlay of ₹ 2.87 lakh crore over 5 years, with an aim to ensure universal water supply in all 4,378 urban local bodies, with 2.86 crore household tap connections and liquid waste management in 500 AMRUT cities;
• Urban Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 will be launched with an outlay of ₹ 1,41,678 crore over 5 years, focused on complete fecal sludge management, waste water treatment, source segregation, management of waste from urban construction, bioremediation of legacy dump sites;
• ₹ 2,217 crore allocated for 42 urban centres with million plus population to tackle burgeoning problem of air pollution;
• The pneumococcal vaccine, limited to only 5 states at present, will be rolled out across the country to avert more than 50,000 child deaths annually;
• ₹ 35,000 crore allocated for #COVID19 Vaccine in 2021-'22, with the commitment to provide more funds, if required.

Pillar 2: Physical and Financial capital and infrastructure

• An outlay of ₹ 1.97 lakh crore over 5 years allocated for Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Schemes to create manufacturing global champions in furtherance of Aatmanirbhar Bharat Scheme;
• Scheme of Mega Investment Textile Parks to be launched, in addition to PLI scheme, to create world class infrastructure in textile sector, with plug-and-play facilities, to create global export champions;
• To give further thrust to National Infrastructure Pipeline, three concrete actions will be taken, viz.: (i) Creating institutional structures, (ii) Monetizing assets, and (iii) Increasing share of capital expenditure in central and state budgets;
• Enhanced outlay of ₹ 1,18,101 crore for Central Ministry of Road Transport and Highways;
• Record sum of ₹ 1,10,055 crore to be provided for Indian Railways;
• New scheme at a cost of ₹ 18,000 crore for augmentation of public bus transport services;
• Framework to be put in place to provide electricity consumers alternatives to choose from among more than one power distribution company;
• Power Distribution Sector Scheme to be launched with an outlay of ₹ 3,05,984 crore over 5 years;
• Propose to consolidate SEBI Act 1992, Depositories Act, 1996, Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956, and Government Securities Act, 2006 to introduce a single and rationalized Securities Markets Code;
• Insurance Act, 1938 will be amended to increase permissible FDI limit in insurance companies from 49% to 74% and allow foreign ownership and control with safeguards;
• Deposit Insurance Cover for bank customers will be increased from ₹ 1 lakh to ₹ 5 lakh and the provisions will be streamlined to enable depositors get access to funds in case the Banks are not performing;
• Minimum loan size eligible for debt recovery under SARFAESI Act 2002 will be reduced from ₹ 50 lakh to ₹ 20 lakh;
• Definition of small companies under Companies Act, 2013 will be revised. To this end, companies with paid-up capital up to ₹ 2 crore & turnover up to ₹ 20 crore will fall under small companies, benefiting more than 2 lakh companies;
• To incentivize incorporation of one-person companies, such companies will be allowed to grow without any restriction on paid-up capital or turnover and to convert into any other type of company at any time;
• Two public sector banks apart from IDBI and one general insurance company will be taken up for strategic disinvestment in 2021-'22.

Pillar 3: Inclusive development for aspirational India

• Agricultural credit target enhanced to ₹ 16.5 lakh crore to ensure increased credit flow to animal husbandry, dairy and fisheries sectors;
• Allocation for Rural Infrastructure Development Fund to be enhanced from ₹ 30,000 crore to ₹ 40,000 crore;
• 1,000 more mandis to be integrated with National Agriculture Market (eNAM);
• A portal will be launched to collect relevant information on gig workers, building and construction workers and others, to help formulate health, housing, skill, food, credit and insurance schemes for all migrant workers;
• Survey of Villages Abadi and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas Scheme (SVAMITVA) will be extended to cover all states and union territories.

Pillar 4: Reinvigorating Human Capital

• More than 15,000 schools to be qualitatively strengthened, with all components of National Education Policy, to emerge as exemplar schools in their regions, handholding and mentoring other schools;
• A Higher Education Commission will be set up;
• ₹ 35,219 crore allocated for 6 years till 2025-26 to provide post matric scholarship to 4 crore Scheduled Caste students;
• Over ₹ 3,000 crore allocated to realign National Apprenticeship Promotion and Training Scheme, for providing post-education apprenticeship and training for graduates and diploma holders in engineering.

Pillar 5: Innovation and R&D

• Outlay of ₹ 50,000 crore over 5 years for National Research Foundation to strengthen research ecosystem, with focus on identified national priority thrust areas;
• ₹ 1,500 crore earmarked for a new scheme which will provide financial incentives to promote digital payments;
• National Language Translation Mission to be launched to make available governance related documents online in different languages;
• NewSpace India Limited will execute PSLV-C51 launch;
• Deep Ocean Mission with outlay of more than ₹ 4,000 crore over 5 years to be launched for deep ocean exploration and ocean biodiversity conversation.

Pillar 6: Minimum Government Maximum Governance

• Functioning of Tribunals will be further rationalized for speedier delivery of justice;
• National Commission for Allied Healthcare Professionals Bill introduced to ensure transparent and efficient regulation of 56 allied healthcare professions;
• To enhance ease of doing business in India, a mandatory Conciliation mechanism will be set up for those who deal with Government;
• Over ₹ 3700 crore allocated for the first ever digital census to be held soon;
• ₹ 1,000 crores allocated for the welfare of Tea workers, especially women and their children in Assam and West Bengal. A special scheme will be devised for the same.