LIVE updates Budget 2024: Firms operating in the space sector have sought a liberal FDI policy on a par with the defence industry and production-linked incentive in the upcoming interim Budget.
In another development, the third phase of the FAME (Faster Adoption and Manuf–acturing of Hybrid & Electric Vehicles) scheme, expected to be proposed in the upcoming Union Budget.
By extending tax concessions on contributions and withdrawals especially for senior citizens above 75 years, the Centre could make the National Pension System (NPS) more attractive. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the interim Budget on February 1. This is going to be her sixth Budget. PFRDA has sought "parity" with Employees' Provident Fund Office (EPFO) on the taxation front for contributions by employers. Some announcements in this regard are expected to be made in the interim Budget. At the current moment, there is a disparity in the employers' contributions in building corpus for the employees, wherein contributions up to 10 per cent of basic salary and dearness allowances by a corporate are exempt from tax for NPS contributions, while the same is 12 per cent in the case of EPFO.
At the current moment, an citizen's contribution of up to Rs 50,000 to the NPS under Section 80CCD (1B) as deduction under the old tax regime but not under the new tax regime. This is over and above Rs 1.5 lakh tax relief given under Section 80C in the OPS. The centre had last year set up a committee under Finance Secretary T V Somanathan to review the pension system and suggest measures for its betterment. The details of the report have still not been maid available on the public domain.
Telecom infrastructure providers have asked for an increase in tax depreciation rate and rationalisation of TDS provisions. Measures to facilitate ease of doing business will increase investment and contribute to the industry's long-term growth, firms under the aegis of Digital Infrastructure Providers' Association (DIPA) said. Summit Digitel, American Towers, Indus Towers, Ascend Telecom, Cloud Extel, Pratap Technocrats, Crest Digitel, Signotox Towers, Applied Solar Technologies, iBUS Networks, and Suyog Telematics, are some of the members of this association.
