Clause - 016 - Amendment of section 43.

THE FINANCE BILL, 2017

Clause 16 of the Bill seeks to amend section 43 of the Income-tax Act relating to definitions of certain terms relevant to income from profits and gains of business or profession.

Clause (1) of the said section provides for the definition of "actual cost" for the purposes of claiming depreciation under section 32 of the Act.

It is proposed to insert a proviso before Explanation 1 of clause (1) of said section so as to provide that where the assessee incurs any expenditure for acquisition of any asset in respect of which a payment or aggregate of payments made to a person in a day, otherwise than by an account payee cheque drawn on a bank or an account payee bank draft or use of electronic clearing system through a bank account, exceeds ten thousand rupees, such expenditure shall be ignored for the purposes of determination of actual cost.

This amendment will take effect from 1st April, 2018 and will, accordingly, apply in relation to the assessment year 2018-2019 and subsequent years.

Restriction on cash payments for capital expenditure conditions recognition of actual cost and depreciation claims on payment mode compliance. Amendment adds a proviso to section 43(1) that excludes from the actual cost for depreciation any expenditure on acquisition of an asset where payments to a person in a day exceed a specified cash threshold unless made by account-payee cheque, account-payee bank draft or electronic clearing system through a bank account, thereby conditioning depreciation eligibility on permitted modes of payment.