Post Budget analysis by TIOL Tube Edit Team

Although the Union Finance Minister, Mr Arun Jaitley, has proposed several positive amendments to woo foreign investors and also Corporate India which has been on the look out for fresh investment opportunities but he did not do what several international fiscal experts and also Vodafone wanted him to do - to undo the retrospective amendment made in Section 9 of the I-T Act. However, Mr Jaitley also did some of the unthinkable ones such as abolition of Wealth Tax Act, 1957 and a roadmap to reduce Corporate tax from 30% to 25% over a period of four years - certainly not from the fiscal 2015-16. Although he deferred GAAR for two more years but he also hiked the surcharge across the board. Although he removed Education Cess in case of indirect taxes but not from direct taxes. However, to infuse certainty in Section 9, he has tried to explain what does the expressed ‘substantial value’ mean with respect to share transfer transaction deriving value from assets located in India. He has also proposed a slew of measures to curb black money and also to deal with such Indians who own assets abroad and hold bank accounts without taking necessary approval from the RBI.