When Hon’ble Finance Minister presented the Union Budget on February 1, she had an unenviable task at hand. An economy that was already crippled by a global slowdown had been further pushed into an unprecedented downturn by the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns. While the Government did release stimulus packages to counter the resultant economic contraction, the nation expected the Budget to provide significant measures to propel the economy back into the recovery mode. Against this dismal backdrop, the tax proposals in the Union Budget were keenly awaited with certain apprehensions around introduction of new taxes or levies.
The good news first; there are no new taxes or cesses announced in the budget. While it is proposed to introduce Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess (“AIDC’) on import of select goods and supply of petrol and diesel, to fund the development of agricultural infrastructure, suitable amendments have been carried out in the duty structure to ensure that this cess does not result in price increase.
Please click here to read the full article by Manish Mishra, published in Mondaq.
Manish has more than 23 years of experience in Indirect taxation across Industry, Consulting and law firms.