Union Budget 2024-25 (Full) + FINANCE (No.2) Bill, 2024

Section 43D of the Act provides for special provision in case of income of public financial institutions, public companies involved in housing finance, scheduled banks, co-operative banks other than primary agricultural credit societies, primary co-operative agricultural and rural development banks, State financial corporations, State industrial investment corporations and notified non-banking financial companies.

2. Clause (b) of section 43D of the Act states that in the case of a public company involved in housing finance, the income by way of interest in relation to such categories of bad or doubtful debts as may be prescribed having regard to the guidelines issued by the National Housing Bank (NHB) in relation to such debts shall be chargeable to tax in the previous year in which it is credited by the public company to its profit and loss account for that year or, as the case may be, in which it is actually received by that company, whichever is earlier. Explanation to the said section also contains references to NHB.

3. However, the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2019 (23 of 2019) has amended the National Housing Bank Act, 1987, conferring powers for regulation of Housing Finance Companies (HFCs) with Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Consequently, HFCs have come under the purview of the RBI as a category of Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs). In the Act, separate provisions already exist in section 43D with respect to NBFCs.

4. Hence, it is proposed to remove reference to National Housing Bank by omitting clause (b) of section 43D of the Act and clause (a) and (b) of Explanation to section 43D of the Act.

5. The amendment will take effect from the 1st day of April, 2025 and shall accordingly apply in relation to assessment year 2025-2026 and subsequent assessment years.

[Clause 15]

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Full Text:

Union Budget 2024-25 (Full) + FINANCE (No.2) Bill, 2024

Tax provision amendment: removal of National Housing Bank references in income recognition rules for housing finance companies. Amendment proposes deleting references to the National Housing Bank in section 43D, removing the clause on public companies engaged in housing finance and related explanations that linked recognition of interest income on prescribed bad or doubtful debts to NHB guidelines, and aligning tax text with the regulatory transfer of housing finance companies to the Reserve Bank of India; the amendment is effective from 1 April 2025 and applies to subsequent assessment years.