New Delhi: The Finance Bill 2022, moved by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, was passed in the Lok Sabha on Friday. The bill will give effect to the financial proposals of the central government for the financial year 2022-23.
The government has reportedly proposed 39 amendments to the Finance Bill, 2022, including changes to the crypto tax structure; penalty provisions on publication of import-export data and status of past income computations that claimed deduction of disallowed cess and surcharges.
As far as crypto tax structure is concerned, the government proposed to tighten the norms for taxation of cryptocurrencies by disallowing set-off of any losses in crypto trade with gains from other virtual digital assets (VDAs).
The Union Budget 2022-23 had proposed taxing crypto assets at the rate of 30 per cent, effective from April 1. It also proposed 1 per cent TDS on payments towards virtual assets beyond Rs 10,000 in a year and taxation of such gifts in the hands of recipients. The TDS provision will come to effect from July 1. According to the Bill, a VDA could be a code or number or token which can be transferred, stored or traded electronically. The VDAs will include prevailing cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
The bill also outlaws publishing of transaction-level information submitted by businesses to the customs department to prevent such information from being utilised by international entities and hostile countries to the detriment of Indian firms.
Replying to a discussion on the Finance Bill, Sitharaman said India was probably the only country that did not resort to new taxes to fund the recovery of the economy hit by the pandemic. "According to an OECD report, as many as 32 countries have increased the tax rates after the pandemic," she said, adding "Instead, we put more money where multiplier effect would be maximum," she said while referring to the budget's focus on raising capital expenditure."
The Budget 2022-23 raised capital expenditure by 35.4 per cent to Rs 7.5 lakh crore.
