Deduction under Section 80CCD extended to NPS Vatsalya contributions, with withdrawal taxation and partial withdrawal exemption.
Parents or guardians may claim a statutory deduction for amounts paid into a minor's NPS Vatsalya account up to a prescribed ceiling. Amounts for which a deduction is allowed, including any accretions, will be taxed on withdrawal when deposits were made to a minor's account, whereas sums received on account closure due to the minor's death will not be treated as the parent's or guardian's income. Partial withdrawals for defined contingencies are excluded from the parent's or guardian's income to the extent they do not exceed a prescribed percentage of contributions and subject to regulatory conditions.

Exemption for National Savings Scheme withdrawals: qualifying pre-1992 deposits and accrued interest by individuals are excluded from taxation.
Amendment to Section 80CCA exempts withdrawals by individuals of NSS deposits and accrued interest-limited to deposits made before 1 April 1992 for which a deduction was allowed-and applies to withdrawals made on or after 29 August 2024, with retrospective effect from that date.

Annual value of self-occupied property simplified, nil deemed where owner occupies or cannot occupy for any reason.
The annual value of a property used as the owner's residence shall be taken as nil if the owner occupies it for residence or cannot actually occupy it for any reason; the existing restriction limiting this benefit to a specified limited number of houses remains unchanged and the amendment applies prospectively under the Finance Bill.

Obligation to furnish crypto-asset transaction information: reporting entities must file prescribed statements and correct defects promptly.
Proposed section 285BAA mandates that prescribed reporting entities furnish statements of crypto-asset transactions to the prescribed income-tax authority in prescribed form, manner and time, allows the authority to intimate defects and permit rectification within a prescribed period, treats unrectified defects as inaccurate information, enables issuance of notices to require late filers to submit statements, requires disclosure and correction of discovered inaccuracies, and empowers the Central Government to prescribe registration, information maintenance, and due diligence obligations for identification of crypto-asset users or owners; the virtual digital asset definition is also expanded to include crypto-assets relying on cryptographically secured distributed ledgers.

Tonnage tax option timeframe extended - order window lengthened to quarter-end for new applications, easing verification.
The amendment extends the decision period for applications to opt into the tonnage tax scheme: where an application is received on or after 1 April 2025 the Joint Commissioner must pass the written order approving or rejecting the option before the expiry of three months from the end of the quarter in which the application was received, providing additional time for verification, inspections, and an opportunity of being heard.

Limitation for deeming tax-collector default: exclusion of court stay periods aligns time-limit rules with reassessment principles.
The amendment makes the limitation period for deeming a person an assessee in default for failure to collect tax subject to exclusion of periods such as court stays by applying the exclusion and suspension principles of the general reassessment framework to that time limit; the change is to take effect from the first day of April, 2025.

Exemption from prosecution for delayed TCS payment where remittance occurs by prescribed quarterly statement deadline.
Amendment provides that prosecution for failure to pay tax collected at source shall not be instituted if payment has been made to the Central Government on or before the time prescribed for filing the quarterly statement under the proviso to sub section (3) of the tax collected at source provision, thereby conditioning criminal liability on meeting the quarterly statement remittance deadline.

Penalty authority of Assessing Officer expanded; prior Joint Commissioner approval required for penalties exceeding prescribed statutory limit.
Penalties under specified sections will be levied by the Assessing Officer instead of the Joint Commissioner, subject to the prior approval requirement where penalties exceed the statutory threshold in sub section (2) of section 274; a consequential amendment to clause (n) of sub section (1) of section 246A is proposed. Section 271BB, a penalty tied to an omitted parent provision, is proposed to be omitted. The amendments are to take effect from the first day of April following enactment.

Faceless schemes notification: Government may issue ongoing directions allowing notifications beyond the prior cutoff to operationalise schemes.
The amendment removes the statutory end date for notifying faceless schemes so the Central Government may issue directions to notify and operationalise faceless procedures under the direct tax statute beyond the prior cut off, following prior extensions due to implementation challenges; the change takes effect from the first day of April after enactment.

Processing period for immunity applications extended to a longer disposal timeframe for Assessing Officers, effective from April.
The amendment extends the Assessing Officer's processing period for applications seeking immunity from penalty and prosecution from one month to three months measured from the end of the month in which the application is received. The current filing requirement that an application for immunity from penalty be made within one month from the end of the month in which the relevant order is received remains as stated. The amendment is proposed to take effect from the first day of April, 2025.

Updated return time-limit extended to encourage voluntary compliance, with higher additional tax rates for later filings.
Extension of the filing window for updated returns from two years to four years with a graded schedule of higher additional income-tax rates for filings after two, three, and up to four years; filing barred where a show-cause notice has been issued after thirty-six months, subject to an exception if a later determination finds the notice unwarranted. Effective 1 April 2025.

Tax exemption for SUUTI extended to March 31, 2027, barring income and related taxes on its receipts.
An amendment to sub section (1) of section 13 of the UTI Repeal Act, 2002 will provide that, notwithstanding the Income tax Act or any other enactment, no income tax or any other tax shall be payable by the Administrator in relation to the Specified Undertaking of Unit Trust of India for the period beginning on the appointed day and ending on the 31st day of March, 2027; the amendment takes effect from 1st April, 2025.

Provisional assessment time-limit set with limited extension; voluntary post-clearance revision permitted; Interim Board to exercise Settlement Commission powers.
A definite time limit is imposed for provisional assessments under Section 18: finalisation within two years with a possible one year Commissioner extension and suspension grounds; Section 18A establishes voluntary post clearance revision treated as self assessment permitting duty payment or refund claims, with refund limitation of one year from payment and the relevant date for revised entry being the date of payment. Amendments also define an Interim Board and allocate Settlement Commission powers to it.

Tariff rationalisation compresses rate slabs and reclassifies goods to improve identification and align with international nomenclature.
Amendments compress and lower multiple tariff slabs into streamlined rate bands and tariffise effective rates, and introduce new tariff lines and supplementary notes to improve goods identification and align classifications with WCO HS 2022; new lines include distinctions by process and variety for rice, makhana product categories, PCB/PCT/PBB concentration levels in waste oils, separate precious metal purity bands, and entries for dual-use chemicals and technical-grade pesticides, with changes effective from a designated future date.

Customs duty rate changes alter import tariffs across sectors, including immediate provisional increases and notified decreases.
Amendments to the First Schedule revise import duty rates by specifying targeted tariff increases (immediately by provisional declaration for selected textile and electronics items), extensive tariff decreases across diverse commodities (with later effective dates subject to notification), and numerical rate adjustments for raw materials, ores, metals and industrial inputs, including reductions to nil for specified waste, scrap and ores; provisions are structured by tariff item and rely on finance measure clauses and a provisional collection mechanism for implementation.

Customs duty adjustments recalibrate import and export tariffs to incentivise specific sectors and inputs, changing duty rates broadly.
Proposed notifications adjust Basic Customs Duty and Export Duty effective 2 February 2025, reducing or nil rating duties on specified aquafarming inputs, wet blue leather, metal waste and lithium ion battery scrap, and numerous electronics inputs and parts; add exempted capital goods for lithium ion battery manufacture for EVs and mobile phones; and amend duty rates for motor vehicles, motorcycles and toy components to recalibrate import protection and incentivise manufacturing and exports.

Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess revised to impose differentiated import cess rates on specified goods, altering tariff-stage duties.
Notification No. 11/2021 - Customs is amended to revise the Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess (AIDC) rates on specified imported goods effective 02.02.2025, introducing differentiated cess where previously nil across categories including stone, footwear, motor vehicles (with special entries for concessional imports and used vehicles), solar cells and modules, PVC flex materials, electronics and parts, furniture, lighting, smart meters, yachts, bicycles, candles, platinum findings and certain laboratory chemicals.

Social Welfare Surcharge exemptions expanded: specified imported goods excluded from SWS levy under amended customs notification.
Amendment to Notification No. 11/2018 exempts specified imported goods from levy of the Social Welfare Surcharge (SWS) with effect from 02.02.2025. Exempted categories include solar cells and modules, specified motor vehicles (including used vehicles and vehicles for transport of goods or ten or more persons and certain high-CIF value cars), various footwear classifications, furniture and bedding articles, lighting fittings, parts of electronic toys, candles, PVC flex films, smart electricity meters, yachts and pleasure vessels, articles of gold/silver under specified entries, dutiable personal-use imports, passenger baggage articles, and certain laboratory chemicals.

Customs duty exemptions review extends and modifies conditional exemptions, adds entries for drugs and satellite goods, and lapses one entry.
Review of customs duty exemptions renews and recalibrates conditional BCD exemptions under Notification No. 50/2017 Customs: twenty four entries are extended with modifications and one entry lapses. Extensions and modifications preserve duty relief across sectors-ships and ship manufacture, bulk drugs and life saving medicines, testing imports, telecom optical fibre inputs, textile machinery, wind energy components and seeds for lab grown diamonds-while creating separate entries and refining lists for drugs, diagnostics and satellite and launch vehicle related imports.

Import compliance timeframe extended; end use period lengthened and reporting shifted to quarterly filings under IGCR amendment.
Amendments to the IGCR Rules extend the period to fulfil the specified end use under Rules 6 and 7 and change the compliance reporting requirement so importers submit a quarterly statement instead of a monthly statement, thereby adjusting both the end use timeframe and the frequency of filings for imports at concessional duty for manufacture of excisable goods.