Ease of doing business
- Minimum Government Maximum Governance
- Simplification of tax procedures.
- Monetary limit for a case to be heard by a single member bench of ITAT increase from ` 5 lakh to `15 lakh.
- Penalty provision in indirect taxes are being rationalised to encourage compliance and early dispute resolution.
- Central excise/Service tax assesses to be allowed to use digitally signed invoices and maintain record electronically.
- Wealth-tax replaced with additional surcharge of 2 per cent on super rich with a taxable income of over `1 crore annually.
- Provision of indirect transfers in the Income-tax Act suitably cleaned up.
- Applicability of indirect transfer provisions to dividends paid by foreign companies to their shareholders to be addressed through a clarificatory circular.
- Domestic transfer pricing threshold limit increased from `5 crore to ` 20 crore.
- MAT rationalised for FIIs and members of an AOP.
- Tax Administration Reform Commission (TARC) recommendations to be appropriately implemented during the course of the year.
- Education cess and the Secondary and Higher education cess to be subsumed in Central Excise Duty.
- Specific rates of central excise duty in case of certain other commodities revised.
- Excise levy on cigarettes and the compounded levy scheme applicable to pan masala, gutkha and other tobacco products also changed.
- Excise duty on footwear with leather uppers and having retail price of more than `1000 per pair reduced to 6%.
- Online central excise and service tax registration to be done in two working days.
- Time limit for taking CENVAT credit on inputs and input services increased from 6 months to 1 year.
- Service-tax plus education cesses increased from 12.36% to 14% to facilitate transition to GST.
- Donation made to National Fund for Control of Drug Abuse (NFCDA) to be eligible for 100% deduction u/s 80G of Income-tax Act.
- Seized cash can be adjusted towards assessees tax liability.
