PAN-Aadhaar linkage: failure to intimate Aadhaar renders PAN inoperative while preserving prior transactions under proposed amendment.
Failure to intimate Aadhaar will result in the PAN being made inoperative in the prescribed manner rather than being deemed invalid, with an express provision preserving the validity of transactions previously carried out through that PAN; the amendment is prospective and will take effect from the notified effective date.

Statement of Financial Transactions reporting: expanded mandatory reporting, threshold removed and penalties broadened to enhance tax pre-filling.
Mandatory reporting under the Statement of Financial Transactions is widened to require additional prescribed persons to furnish SFTs, the existing aggregate transaction threshold for reporting is removed to include small-value transactions, defects unrectified within the prescribed time will be treated as furnishing inaccurate information, and penalty provisions are expanded to cover all reporting entities; these amendments take effect from 1st September, 2019.

Electronic payment requirement extended to include prescribed electronic modes, altering payment compliance and tax treatment from specified effective dates.
Amendments add "other electronic mode as may be prescribed" to the list of acceptable non cash payment modes across multiple income tax provisions, so payments or receipts through prescribed electronic instruments will satisfy statutory conditions for donation exemption, capital expenditure recognition, disallowance avoidance, actual cost determination, stamp duty linked valuation, presumptive taxation eligibility, and employment related deductions. The changes apply from specified effective dates: most tax treatment provisions from 1 April 2020 and the prohibitions on specified cash receipts/repayments from 1 September 2019.

TDS on cash withdrawals to apply when annual cash withdrawals exceed a threshold, with specified institutional exemptions.
Section 194N creates a TDS obligation on cash payments from a recipient's account by banks, cooperative banks and post offices when annual aggregate cash withdrawals exceed a prescribed threshold, targeting reduction of cash transactions; specified institutional recipients are exempted, and the Central Government may notify further exemptions in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India, with a statutory commencement provision.

Mandatory electronic payment acceptance requires businesses above a turnover threshold to provide prescribed digital payment facilities, with daily penalties.
A new provision requires persons carrying on business whose total sales, turnover or gross receipts in the immediately preceding previous year exceed a specified turnover threshold to provide facilities for accepting payments through the prescribed electronic modes. Failure to provide such prescribed electronic payment facilities attracts a daily monetary penalty, subject to proof of good and sufficient reasons, with penalty imposition by the Joint Commissioner. A consequential amendment prohibits banks and system providers from imposing any charge for using the prescribed electronic payment modes.

IFSC tax incentives expand tax-neutral transfers and exemptions to promote external borrowing and extended profit-linked deductions.
Proposed IFSC tax measures include treating transfers of specified securities by Category III AIFs with all non-resident unit-holders as not constituting transfer, empowering notification of additional securities, exempting interest payable to non-residents on borrowings by IFSC units, extending tax neutrality to dividends paid out of accumulated IFSC income, exempting distributions by mutual funds in IFSC with all non-resident unit-holders from additional tax, ensuring full access to profit-linked deductions for IFSC units by removing restrictive computation conditions, and increasing the one-hundred-per-cent deduction to any ten consecutive assessment years within a fifteen-year window.

Interest recognition rule extended to regulated NBFCs, with deductions allowed only when interest is actually paid by return-filing deadline.
The accrual-exception that taxes interest on bad or doubtful debts when credited or received is extended to include deposit-taking NBFCs and systemically important non-deposit-taking NBFCs; correspondingly, interest deductions for payments to these NBFCs are allowable only if actually paid on or before the due date for filing the return of income, aligning their tax treatment with other regulated financial institutions.

Special taxation regime for offshore funds relaxed to ease corpus and remuneration conditions for fund managers in India.
Section 9A provides a safe harbour excluding business connection and residency of an eligible investment fund solely because fund management is undertaken by an eligible fund manager in India, subject to conditions on fund residence, corpus, diversification and arm's length remuneration. Proposed amendments relax the corpus condition to require a minimum corpus of one hundred crore rupees at the end of six months from establishment or at the end of the previous year, and replace the remuneration test with an amount to be prescribed; the changes operate retrospectively from 1st April, 2019 for the relevant assessment year and thereafter.

Deduction for electric vehicle loan interest allowed subject to sanctioned-loan period and sole-ownership condition under new tax provision.
Section 80EEB permits a deduction for interest on loans taken to purchase an electric vehicle where the loan is sanctioned by a financial institution (including NBFCs) within the prescribed sanction period and where the borrower does not own any other electric vehicle at loan sanction; the same interest cannot be claimed under any other provision for the same or any other assessment year and the amendment applies from the stated commencement to the relevant assessment years.

Interest exemption for nonresident bond investors removes withholding on offshore rupee bond interest issued during the announced period.
Amendment incorporates the government press release exemption into the statute to provide that interest paid to a non-resident by a specified company in respect of monies borrowed from a source outside India by way of issue of rupee denominated bonds during the announced period is exempt from tax, and that no tax was required to be deducted at source for interest paid on such bonds; the amendment is effective from the start of the stated fiscal year and applies to the specified assessment year and subsequent assessment years.

Tax incentive for affordable housing expands interest deduction on home loans, subject to property value and ownership conditions.
A new provision permits a deduction for interest on residential house loans from financial institutions, subject to conditions: loan sanctioned within the prescribed fiscal window, stamp duty value of the property below a prescribed ceiling, and the borrower owning no residential property on sanction date. The deduction is exclusive and cannot be claimed under any other provision for the same interest. Parallel amendments amend the affordable-housing deduction by capping carpet area by urban category and imposing the same stamp duty valuation limit for qualifying housing projects approved on or after the specified date; both amendments take effect from the same fiscal commencement and apply to ensuing assessment years.

National Pension System incentives: higher tax exemption on lump sums, expanded employer deduction and Tier-II deductibility for central employees.
The Finance Bill increases the tax-exempt portion of lump-sum NPS payments on account closure or opt-out, raises the allowable employer-side deduction for Central Government contributions to employee NPS accounts, and makes Central Government employees' Tier-II NPS contributions eligible for deduction under the general savings deduction provision, with these changes operating prospectively for subsequent assessment years.

Carry-forward of startup losses: relaxed shareholder continuity test expands eligibility for loss set-off for eligible startups.
Proposed amendments permit closely held eligible start-ups to carry forward and set off pre previous year losses on satisfaction of either the existing clause (a) shareholder continuity test or the start up specific clause (b) condition; other closely held companies remain subject to clause (a) only. Amendments to section 54GB extend the rollover relief sunset for investment in eligible start-ups, reduce the required post subscription shareholding threshold to twenty five per cent, and shorten the asset transfer restriction from five years to three years, effective from the stated fiscal implementation date.

Exemption on share premium from category two AIF extended to venture capital undertakings, permitting tax-free receipt of funds.
The amendment extends the exemption from taxation of excess consideration on issue of shares so that venture capital undertakings receiving funds from Category II Alternative Investment Funds will not have the excess over fair market value charged as income, thereby aligning Category II AIF receipts with existing exemptions available to Category I AIFs and notified classes of persons.

Carry-forward of tax losses extended to companies under tribunal approved resolution plans after offering tax authorities a hearing.
Carry-forward and set-off restrictions under section 79 are removed for companies (and their subsidiaries) whose boards were suspended and replaced and whose shareholding changed pursuant to a tribunal approved resolution plan, provided the jurisdictional tax officer was given a reasonable opportunity to be heard. Corresponding amendment to the computation of book profit for minimum alternate tax permits reduction by aggregate unabsorbed depreciation and brought forward loss (excluding depreciation) for such companies.

Deeming of fair market value: exemptions where share consideration is approved by specified authorities, relieving applicability of certain tax provisions.
Proposes empowering the Board to exempt prescribed classes of transactions and persons from the deeming of fair market value for share transfers where consideration is approved by specified authorities, thereby relieving applicability of valuation deeming in both receipt-based chargeability and capital gains computation, with the amendment applying prospectively to subsequent assessment years.

Withholding tax online applications enabled to streamline Assessing Officer determinations for non-resident payments and improve monitoring.
Amendments to section 195(2) permit electronic filing by payers seeking determination of the portion of payments to non-residents chargeable to tax and authorize prescription of the form and manner of application and of the Assessing Officer's procedure for determining the taxable portion; a parallel change to section 195(7) applies to specified classes, with the reforms intended to speed processing and improve administrative monitoring.

Electronic filing requirement for statements of non-deducted tax on interest introduced, with correction mechanism and effective date.
Amendment to Section 206A requires electronic filing, in the prescribed form and manner, of statements for payments of interest to residents where tax has not been deducted at source; it also provides for correction of such statements to rectify mistakes or add, delete or update information and includes a consequential amendment reflecting an increased TDS threshold for certain payers, effective from 1st September, 2019.

Buy back tax extension: buy backs by listed companies now subject to the anti abuse levy, with shareholder exemption aligned.
The anti abuse levy under Section 115QA is proposed to be extended to companies listed on recognised stock exchanges, bringing buy backs by listed companies within the additional tax regime and addressing tax arbitrage between buy backs and dividends; simultaneously, the exemption for shareholders under clause (34A) of section 10 is extended to listed company shareholders where the company has paid the buy back tax, effective for buy backs on or after the stated commencement date.

Cancellation of registration: expanded to include noncompliance with other material laws and final adverse orders after hearing.
Cancellation of registration is broadened to require that, when granting registration, the tax authority satisfy itself about compliance with other laws material to the trust's or institution's objects. Registration may be cancelled where a trust or institution has violated such other material laws and an order or decree establishing that violation is final or undisputed; cancellation is to be by written order after affording a reasonable opportunity of being heard.