The Lok Sabha on Friday cleared the Finance Bill, which gives effect to the new taxation, thus completing the budgetary exercise for the 2022-23 financial year. The Finance Bill was cleared by the lower house after it accepted 39 official amendments introduced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and the amendments proposed by the opposition were rejected by voice vote.
Responding to the discussion on the Finance Bill, Sitharaman said that India is perhaps the only country which did not resort to new taxes to recover the economy hit by the Covid pandemic. She said that according to an OECD report, 32 countries have increased tax rates after the pandemic.
Referring to the budget’s focus on increasing capital expenditure, he said, “Instead, we invest more money where the multiplier effect will be maximum.” Budget 2022-23 raised capex by 35.4 per cent to Rs 7.5 lakh crore to continue the public investment-led recovery of the pandemic-battered economy. Noting that the Modi government believes in reducing taxes, he said the reduction in corporate tax “has helped the economy, the government and companies, and we are seeing progress”.
He said that Rs 7.3 lakh crore has been collected as corporate tax in this financial year so far. Stating that the number of taxpayers has increased to 9.1 crore from 5 crore a few years back, he said the government is taking steps to widen the tax base and faceless assessment has been well received by the people. Responding to the concerns expressed by the members on imposition of customs duty on umbrellas, he said that this was done by MSMEs to encourage domestic manufacturing.
He further added that IFSC in Gujarat is making steady progress, and many global funds and insurance companies are setting up offices at the International Financial Services Center in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT).
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