Customs duty revisions reshape tariffs to protect domestic manufacturing while exempting inputs and conditioning concessional rates.
Proposed revision of basic customs duty rates reallocates protection by increasing duties on finished consumer and automotive imports while reducing or exempting inputs and designated end-use materials to promote domestic manufacturing. Concessional rates and exemptions are conditional on specified end-uses and registrations, such as RNI registration for newsprint; electronic and mobile-phone components face staged duty increases with effective dates; defense-related imports by specified public sector undertakings are exempted subject to listed items.

Basic Customs Duty increases apply to numerous tariff headings, altering import duty obligations from the effective date.
Amendments increase the Basic Customs Duty in the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 for numerous tariff headings, specifying revised duty percentages for defined commodities and adding new tariff entries; certain new entries show an operative zero effective rate. The changes are effective 02.02.2020 and declared immediately collectible under the Provisional Collection of Taxes Act, 1931.

Safeguard measures expanded to permit duties or tariff rate quotas when increased imports threaten domestic industry.
The substituted Section 8B empowers the Central Government to apply safeguard measures-including imposition of a Safeguard Duty, application of a Tariff Rate Quota, or any other appropriate measure-when increased imports of an article cause or threaten to cause serious injury to domestic industry, centralising authority to identify qualifying import patterns and to select proportional remedial instruments.

Preferential tariff verification: suspension of duty concessions pending exporter verification and security requirement for import clearance.
New Chapter VAA (section 28DA) creates a framework for preferential tariff treatment under trade agreements, imposes importer obligations and requires time bound verification from the exporting country; preferential treatment may be suspended pending verification with clearance only on furnishing security equal to the differential duty, and may be denied in certain cases. Section 51B establishes an Electronic Duty Credit Ledger for duty credits in lieu of remission and extends recovery provisions to such credits. Amendments also add confiscation liability for contraventions of preferential claims and empower rulemaking under sections 156 and 157; an explanation preserves pre 2018 notices under section 28.

Verification of Returns: prescribed persons may verify company and LLP returns and act as authorised representatives.
Amendments allow any person prescribed by the Board to verify the income-tax return of a company or LLP and permit any person prescribed by the Board to appear as an authorised representative on behalf of an assessee, supplementing existing verification and representation rules that currently designate managing directors, directors, insolvency professionals, designated partners or partners.

Cost of acquisition for segregated portfolio units: holding period continuity and proportional NAV-based allocation determine tax basis.
Units in a segregated portfolio inherit the holding period of the original units in the main portfolio, and the cost of acquisition of segregated portfolio units is the portion of the original cost proportionate to the ratio of the NAV of assets transferred to the segregated portfolio to the NAV of the total portfolio immediately before segregation; the cost of the original units in the main portfolio is deemed reduced by that allocated amount.

Annual financial statement upload expands tax-statement data in assessees' accounts, aiding compliance and accurate return filing.
The administering income-tax authority, or its authorised person, will be required to upload an Annual Financial Statement to the assessee's registered account on the designated portal, in such form, manner and within such time as may be prescribed, containing financial information in the possession of the authority (including items beyond tax deducted or collected). The existing provision specifically governing the prior tax-deduction statement is proposed to be deleted and the amendment takes effect from 1st June, 2020.

Tax audit threshold increase for low-cash businesses; tax audit reports must be furnished earlier to enable return pre-filling.
The proposal raises the audit exemption threshold for businesses where both aggregate cash receipts and aggregate cash payments do not exceed five percent of totals; it mandates that tax audit reports for business or professional income be furnished at least one month before the return filing due date to enable pre-filling, and it amends return due dates and partner treatment while making consequential TDS/TCS amendments to align withholding references with the revised audit framework.

Eligibility expansion for Adjudicating Authority members adds District Judge qualification, broadening appointment pool under Benami Property law.
Section 9 eligibility for appointment as a Member of the Adjudicating Authority under the Prohibition of Benami Property Transaction Act is expanded to include persons who are qualified for appointment as District Judge, in addition to existing eligibility for Indian Revenue Service officers who have held Commissioner of Income-tax (or equivalent) and Indian Legal Service officers who have held Joint Secretary (or equivalent). The amendment takes effect from 1 April 2020 under Clause 143 of the Finance Bill.

Donation reporting: donees must file statements and issue certificates before donor deduction claims are allowed under tax law.
Entities receiving donations must furnish a standardized statement of donations and issue certificates to donors; donor deduction claims will be permitted only where the donee has filed the prescribed statement, with fees and penalties for non compliance. Approvals and registrations under charitable exemption provisions will be time limited and may be granted provisionally on application without detailed enquiry, with requirements to reapply to reactivate inoperative registrations.

Time-limited exemptions: periodic renewal of registrations to ensure compliance and reduce intrusive inquiries.
Modernise and streamline the process for grant of registration and approval for tax-exempt entities by using technology, and institute time-limited, renewable exemptions to ensure ongoing compliance while reducing intrusive day-to-day inquiries; the reform would apply to both existing and new exempt entities.

Exemption switching for registered charitable entities allowed once to obtain statutory notification, preserving single-mode compliance and admin efficiency.
Amendment permits registered charitable entities to seek notification under the statutory exemption for bodies created by Central or State enactment, correcting an anomaly that denied such notification to entities holding registration. It retains the complete-code principle requiring compliance with registration conditions, but allows a one-time switch to the notified exemption while ensuring only one mode of exemption is operative and limiting routine switching for administrative efficiency.

Stamp duty cap on fair market value for land and buildings limits FMV to stamp duty value where available.
For land or building assets, the fair market value on the reference date for computing cost of acquisition shall not exceed the stamp duty value where such stamp duty value is available; "stamp duty value" means the value adopted, assessed or assessable by any Central or State authority for stamp duty purposes.

Taxation of dividends shifts to shareholders, abolishing payer-level tax and imposing withholding and limited deductions under transitional rules.
Removal of Dividend Distribution Tax and return to a classical system makes dividend and income from units taxable in the hands of shareholders and unit holders at their applicable rates, removes payer-level additional tax and related exemptions, limits deductions against such income to interest expense capped at twenty per cent, reallocates taxability for business trusts and interposed vehicles to unit holders, and introduces expanded withholding obligations and transitional rules phasing out payer-level taxation.

Significant Economic Presence deferred while source rules target India-directed digital ad and data revenue for taxation.
The proposal defers the Significant Economic Presence concept until 1 April 2022 (applicable AY 2022-23), pending threshold rules; clarifies that India-sourced income includes advertising targeted at Indian customers and sale of India-collected data (effective 1 April 2021), aligns the indirect transfer exception for investments by foreign portfolio investors with SEBI's revised FPI regulations (effective 1 April 2020), expands the definition of royalty to include receipts from sale/distribution/exhibition of cinematographic films (effective 1 April 2021), and empowers the Board to prescribe income attribution rules under section 295 with staggered effective dates.

Treaty anti abuse preamble aligns DTAA purpose with MLI to prevent treaty shopping via statutory amendment.
The proposal amends the statutory power to enter into DTAAs so that agreements for the avoidance of double taxation must be made without creating opportunities for non taxation or reduced taxation through tax evasion or avoidance, including treaty shopping arrangements aimed at indirect benefit of residents of other jurisdictions, thereby implementing the MLI's anti abuse preamble into domestic treaty making authority.

Penalty for false invoices: levy equals aggregate false or omitted entries and also targets those who cause them.
A new provision proposes a penalty for false entries under GST where penalty equals the aggregate amount of false or omitted entries used to evade tax; liability extends to persons who cause such entries. "False entries" include forged or falsified documents, invoices without actual supply or receipt of goods or services, and invoices involving non existent persons. The amendment is intended to deter fraudulent ITC claims and takes effect from the fiscal implementation date in the Finance Bill.

Contract manufacturing classification: raw materials supplied by assessee or associate treated as work under section 194C, preventing tax avoidance.
Amendment treats contract manufacturing where raw material is provided by the assessee or its associate as work under section 194C, closing a compliance gap exploited by sourcing materials through related parties, and defines "associate" by reference to the relational test in clause (b) of sub section (2) of section 40A.

Tax residency thresholds tightened: visit exemption reduced, not ordinarily resident test tightened and deeming rule for citizens without foreign tax liability.
The proposal reduces the special visit exemption for Indian citizens and persons of Indian origin so shorter periods of presence in India count towards residency; replaces the existing multi-part test for not ordinarily resident status with a single prior non-residence stability test; and deems an Indian citizen who is not liable to tax in any other jurisdiction to be resident in India, aimed at preventing arrangements that result in global non taxation.

Taxpayer's Charter empowers the tax board to adopt a charter and issue directions and guidelines to tax authorities for administration.
Insertion of section 119A empowers the Board to adopt and declare a Taxpayer's Charter and to issue orders, instructions, directions or guidelines to other income tax authorities for administration of the Charter, with the amendment taking effect from 1st April, 2020.