Central government has announced major relief to corporate India to boost their morale in the light of economic slowdown. Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman announced these reliefs in Goa today. As per the economic booster, the government has decided to slash the Corporate Tax from 30% to 22% by bringing an ordinance in the tax laws and the Finance Act.
These revised corporate tax benefits will be available for those companies which do not avail any incentives or exemptions of the government. The effective rate of tax for such entities will be 25.7% including surcharge and cess.
All such companies also need to pay any Minimum Alternative Tax (MAT).
In order to boost Make in India, the government has added a new provision in the IT Act by which any domestic company incorporated on or after October 1, 2019 will have the option to pay tax at the rate 15% if they do not avail any incentive or exemption of the government. The effective rate of tax for such units will be 17.01% including surcharge and cess. These companies have to start their production by March, 2023.
Announcing this, Finance Minister said that those companies which are availing any kind of incentives or exemptions like Tax holidays and do not want to forgo those have to continue paying the old Tax. However, in order to provide relief to such companies, the government has made provisions to slash MAT from 8.5% to 15%.
In order to stabilise flow of funds into the capital market, the government has decided to withdraw the enhanced surcharge on capital gains and sale of any security introduced in the Finance Bill 2019, the last budget. Similarly, in order to provide incentives to listed companies which have already announced a buyback before July, 2019, tax on buy back of shares shall not apply.
Sitharaman also announced that the government has decided to enhance the scope of CSR spending by corporates.
