If past is prologue as the old adage goes, then Arun Jaitley's first budget will closely mirror his 10 pages long detailed speech in Rajya Sabha on Union Budget 2012. The 2012 budget of then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, was arguably the most controversial in recent times, mainly on account of almost two dozen retro amendments. The retro amendments especially relating to Indirect Transfers were meant to target the Voda-Hutch deal and came in for scorched earth criticism from all quarters especially foreign investors but it was also roundly criticized within Parliament and by none other than Arun Jaitley, the then Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha. 

Taxsutra gets you the key tax excerpts from Jaitley's 2012 speech, including what he said on retro amendments, GST, Service Tax negative list and the cascading effect of taxation.

Copy of Finance Bill passed by Lok Sabha on July 25, 2014

A quick analysis of the fine print of Finance Bill, 2014 indicates that a host of proposed amendments may have the effect of overruling a few Court and Tribunal decisions.

Taxsutra Team has compiled a first update on indicative list of case-laws that are likely to have overruled / impacted if the amendments take effect.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) spend is application of income, not to get deduction u/s 37, Proposed explanation 2 to Sec 37, going forward, may also impact CSR expense which was allowed so far; Disallowance u/s 40(a)(ia) to apply to payments like salaries, directors' fee, however disallowance restricted to 30% of expenditure as against 100% as per earlier provision; Period of holding to qualify as long term capital asset for unlisted and MF unit (other than equity oriented fund) increased from 12 months to 36 months; Sec. 145(2) amended to facilitate implementation of Tax Accounting Standards (TAS); Provisions relating to charitable trust taxation tightened; No specific provisions in the current version of Finance Bill on proposed "review committee" of retro amendment and expanding settlement commission & AAR scope 

With the Indian Union Budget 2014-15 to be announced in less than 72 hours, everyone & especially the individual taxpayers are hoping if they will see ‘Acche Din’ (Good Days) in this financial year.

Raising ‘tax exemption limit’ and reducing ‘tax rates’ has always been the topmost expectation of the personal taxpayers from every budget.

The history of income-tax rates shows that the personal income-tax rates have come down considerably and have been more or less stable.

The Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will present his maiden Budget in less than 24 hours now.  The expectations are sky-high from all the stakeholders from the Budget on the tax policy. He also has a difficult task to decide on whether to continue or change tax proposals announced by his predecessors. In this backdrop, Taxsutra compilation "Budget Glimpses", provides a quick snapshot of important direct and indirect tax proposals from the last 10 Union Budgets.

Key Excerpts from Pranab Mukherjee's speech in Parliament on Union Budget 2012 

Concessional CST rate:

I am just placing the facts for the consideration of the House.  It was decided in 2007-08 that CST will be brought down.  First year, from four per cent to three per cent; second year, from three per cent to two per cent; third year, from two per cent to one per cent; and fourth year, from one per cent to zero per cent.  That was the arrangement which was made in 2007-08 onwards. The States were to accept certain obligations; Centre was to accept certain obligations.  When 2009-10 came, then the issue came because that was the financial crisis year.  It was not a unilateral decision of mine as Finance Minister but in consultation with the Empowered Committee of the State Finance Ministers, the then Chairman, we decided that we will not bring it down further from two per cent to one per cent. 

Key Excerpts of Piyush Goyal's speech in Rajya Sabha on 2012 Budget 

“People want Government to get out of their lives. People want Government not to interfere, not to tax every aspect of their lives, not to have a license quota raj for everything that they engage in. They are looking forfreedom from high taxes. They are looking for freedom from bureaucratic controls over their lives.”

Out of the many expectations from Budget 2014, households are hoping for doubling of the exemption limit for investments in financial instruments. Presently the investments and expenditures up to a combined limit of Rs 1 lakh get exemptions under Sections 80C, 80CC and 80CCD of the Income Tax Act, 1961. In the forthcoming budget, it is expected that Finance Minister Mr Arun Jaitley will increase the limit of allowable deduction to Rs. 2 lakhs.