Amendment to TDS rules introduces Form 15E to determine taxable proportion of payments to non-residents.
Amendment empowers the Board to prescribe the form and manner for applications by payers to obtain an Assessing Officer determination of the appropriate proportion of payments to non-resident recipients subject to tax deduction at source; consequential amendments to the Income-tax Rules will introduce a new rule and Form 15E which standardises payer and payee particulars, transaction details, taxability analysis, treaty relief claims, supporting documents and declarations to facilitate issuance of certificates by the Assessing Officer.

Extension of filing deadline for income-tax returns and tax audit reports; late filings during disruption treated as timely.
Extension of the due-date for filing Income-tax Returns and Tax Audit Reports for all categories of assessees in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the Union Territory of Ladakh is ordered under Section 119, modifying prior CBDT orders; returns and reports filed after the earlier cutoff up to issuance of this order are deemed to have been filed within the applicable due-date.

Extension of time for response to section 142(1) notices under e-assessment, deadline now later of notice time or specified date.
Extension of time for filing responses to assessment notices issued under section 142(1) is authorised by the National e-Assessment Centre under the E-assessment Scheme, 2019; notices issued up to 24.12.2019 have their response period extended to the later of 10.01.2020 or the time given in the individual notice to facilitate compliance by taxpayers and tax professionals.

Child budgeting recommended as a national priority to strengthen child protection, education and health service access.
Recommendations to prioritise child budgeting and a National Fund for child protection; strengthen Right to Education compliance and finance for secondary education with girl focused support; expand primary health outreach and maternal nutrition; use fiscal measures to discourage unhealthy products; mandate disability inclusive procurement and tax relief for assistive technology; secure land titles for women, reform pensions and social protections for vulnerable groups; promote rural infrastructure investment, employment through agriculture and non farm sectors, targeted skill development for marginalised women, and enhanced Centre State fund monitoring.

Water and sanitation policy: emphasise decentralised waste management and incentives for wastewater treatment and recycling.
Pre Budget consultation with Water and Sanitation stakeholders prioritized measures to improve water, sanitation and solid waste management by scaling rural sanitation under an integrated WASH framework, decentralising waste management, incentivising wastewater treatment and recycling, promoting eco friendly sewage treatment and ground water recharge, and strengthening community water management and measurement of service standards to address disparities between urban and rural service delivery.

Green infrastructure and renewable energy financing prioritized to drive policy incentives and investment alignment with climate goals.
Pre-Budget consultations with infrastructure, energy and climate stakeholders recommended policy and financing measures to align infrastructure with energy transition goals, including enhanced availability of finance for housing and infrastructure, scaling renewable energy capacity, viability gap funding for batteries and storage, expansion of farmer-focused renewable schemes, promotion of energy-efficient appliances, technology upgrades for railways, fiscal adjustments (lower duties, softer lending rates), and development of a green economic activities taxonomy for climate-compliant investment.

Pre budget consultation gathers economists' recommendations to boost investment, reform taxes and revive the financial sector for growth.
Pre budget consultations solicited expert recommendations to support growth and job creation through measures to attract investment, ensure fiscal transparency and prudence, strengthen monetary transmission, revive and oversee non bank financial companies, and implement structural reforms including simplification of tax frameworks, land and labour reforms, and measures to mobilise financial savings and bolster rural demand.

Public-private partnership hybrid-annuity model assigns design, implementation and O&M to concessionaire with government milestone payments.
A public private partnership using the Hybrid Annuity Model will upgrade about 1,600 km of state highways and major district roads by assigning design, construction, and operation and maintenance responsibilities to a private concessionaire; the government will make phased milestone linked payments during construction while the concessionaire arranges remaining equity and commercial debt and will be repaid over a defined post completion period. The project also mandates two lane all weather standards, road safety features, an e maintenance system, and capacity building for contract implementation and project finance.

Ease of Doing Business reforms urged to safeguard investment and accelerate approvals, mergers, exports and rural consumption.
Participants urged targeted reforms to enhance Ease of Doing Business, shorten timelines for FDI approvals, accelerate mergers, acquisitions and demerger processes, and improve insolvency resolution by strengthening NCLT bank interactions under the IBC. Additional priorities included measures to boost rural consumption, provide liquidity support to NBFCs with rural focus, incentivize CAPEX and infrastructure investment, curb predatory pricing and dumping, promote domestic R&D for Make in India, and explore PPP models leveraging social funding.

Social security and minimum wage enforcement urged to strengthen labour protections, with legislation and tripartite consultations to guide reforms.
Emphasis on strengthening labour protections through expanded social security coverage and minimum wage enforcement, supported by legislation, streamlined schemes, and consultations with trade unions to finalise the Code on Safety, Industrial Relations & Social Security. Concurrent measures include prioritising skilling, re skilling and up skilling aligned with sectoral clusters, creation of dedicated funds for skill enhancement and MSME job revival, increased rural employment support, job profiling by skill, and reinforcement of tripartite and bipartite mechanisms to extend benefits to unorganised and landless labourers.

Energy efficiency financing expands demand side measures, smart metering and capacity building to reduce losses and scale models.
ADB and the Government of India provided financing to EESL to scale demand side energy efficiency investments through deployment of smart metering, distributed solar photovoltaic systems, and measures to promote electric vehicles, aiming to reduce network losses, improve billing and collection, cut greenhouse gas emissions, and develop scalable business models. The operation is supported by concessional Clean Technology Fund resources and an accompanying technical assistance package including a gender action plan, private sector mobilisation, piloting of subprojects, capacity building for distribution and regulatory agencies, and awareness programs targeting women consumers.

Decriminalisation of tax and company laws proposed to reduce compliance burden and ease doing business before the budget.
Pre-budget consultations focused on measures to stimulate private investment and exports, proposing decriminalisation of tax and company laws, broad reduction of compliance burdens, reduction of tax litigation, self-certification for low-risk enterprises, simplification of duties and labour regulations, adoption of international-standard ADR, Export Development funds for MSME exporters, and measures to ease investment into manufacturing.

Legacy dispute resolution scheme: final opportunity to settle central excise and service tax disputes before scheme closure
Sabka Vishwas (Legacy Dispute Resolution) Scheme, 2019 provides a final opportunity for eligible taxpayers to settle past central excise and service tax disputes on concessional terms; departmental officers are directed to contact all eligible taxpayers, undertake extensive outreach including social media publicity, explain Scheme benefits, and emphasise that there will be No extension beyond the Scheme's closure, urging uptake to finalise pending cases.

Ease of Doing Business improvement spurs reforms including startup incentives and enhanced export credit and trade facilitation measures.
India's reforms advance the business environment, innovation and exports through administrative simplification, patent rule amendments and expanded startup recognition, alongside enhanced export support mechanisms. Key export measures include a new export credit insurance scheme increasing cover and moderating premiums, capital infusions into export insurance bodies, creation of online origin and claims platforms, introduction of the WTO compliant RoDTEP to replace prior export incentives, and logistics and multimodal transport reforms to reduce costs and improve trade facilitation.

Extension of advance tax payment deadline for affected taxpayers due to internet service disruption; central board provided administrative relief.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes, invoking clause (a) of sub-section (2) of section 119 of the Income tax Act, 1961, extended the payment deadline for the December installment of advance tax for the fiscal year for all assesses, corporate and non-corporate, in specified North Eastern States due to large-scale internet service disruption; the relief alters only the timing of payment for that installment and applies solely to taxpayers located in the named States.

Pre-Budget Consultation: Financial stakeholders proposed boosting credit, PSB governance reforms and measures to relieve NBFC stress.
Pre-Budget Consultation proposed initiatives to increase credit off-take from banks, reform public sector bank governance, develop bond markets through standardisation and promote risk capital measures including the Partial Credit Guarantee Scheme; additional recommendations targeted NBFC stress alleviation, expansion of alternative investment funds and mutual funds, tax measures to promote leasing and insurance penetration, private bank support for credit schemes, and streamlined KYC for digital credit access.

Digital economy regulation and tax incentives proposed to promote data infrastructure, startup growth and research and development.
Pre-Budget consultations urged incentives for setting up data centres, fiscal support for data localisation, use of big data technologies for SMEs and public governance, and stronger privacy and digital economy regulation. Tax proposals included rationalisation of the minimum alternate tax, tax exemptions and sops for start-ups, incentives for research and development, and measures to boost women's employment and youth skill development. Stakeholders also recommended a dedicated agency to address cross border financial crimes and frameworks to improve start up competitiveness.

Industrial incentives promote investment in backward regions through capital, interest, insurance, tax and transport support.
Central schemes target industrialization in specified backward, hilly and North Eastern regions by offering a standard set of incentives: a Central Capital Investment Incentive (30% of plant & machinery investment subject to an upper limit), a Central Interest Incentive on working capital, reimbursement of insurance premiums, income tax and Central GST reimbursement, an employment incentive for employer social security contributions, and transport incentives for movement of finished goods by rail, inland waterways and air; schemes impose per unit benefit caps and fixed operative periods.

Tariff value fixation for specified imports updated, providing new US dollar reference values for customs assessment.
Under the authority of section 14(2) of the Customs Act, 1962, Notification No. 36/2001-Customs (N.T.) is amended by substituting Tables 1-3 to prescribe US dollar denominated tariff reference values for specified imported goods, including edible oils, brass scrap, poppy seeds, areca nut and specified forms of gold and silver, which shall serve as the operative reference for customs valuation and related assessment of those items.

Tax exemptions for startups enable profit deductions, share premium relief, and capital gains reinvestment benefits to support startup financing.
Recognized startups may claim a profits deduction under Section 80 IAC after DPIIT recognition and Inter Ministerial Board validation, file prescribed declarations to exempt share premium receipts from income taxation, reinvest long term capital gains into notified funds for exemption, and utilise amended capital gains reinvestment reliefs into startup equity with relaxed shareholding requirements; a SIDBI managed Fund of Funds provides committed capital to SEBI registered AIF daughter funds which invest in startups rather than direct FFS investment.