Union Budget 2023-24 + FINANCE Bill, 2023

Rationalisation of exempt income under life insurance policies

Clause (10D) of section 10 of the Act provides for income-tax exemption on the sum received under a life insurance policy, including bonus on such policy. There is a condition that the premium payable for any of the years during the terms of the policy should not exceed ten per cent of the actual capital sum assured.

2. It may be pertinent to note that the legislative intent of providing exemption under clause (10D) of section 10 of the Act has been to further the welfare objective by subsidising the risk premium for an individual’s life and providing benefit to small and genuine cases of life insurance coverage. However, over the years it has been observed that several high net worth individuals are misusing the exemption provided under clause (10D) of section 10 of the Act by investing in policies having large premium contributions (as it is acting as an investment policy) and claiming exemption on the sum received under such life insurance policies.

3. In order to prevent the misuse of exemption under the said clause, Finance Act, 2021, amended clause (10D) of section 10 of the Act to, inter-alia, provide that the sum received under a ULIP (barring the sum received on death of a person), issued on or after the 01.02.2021 shall not be exempt if the amount of premium payable for any of the previous years during the term of such policy exceeds Rs 2,50,000. It was also provided that if premium is payable for more than one ULIPs, issued on or after the 01.02.2021, the exemption under the said clause shall be available only with respect to such policies where the aggregate premium does not exceed Rs 2,50,000 for any of the previous years during the term of any of the policy. Circular no 02 of 2022 dated 19.01.2022 was issued to explain how the exemption is to be calculated when there are more than one policies.

4. After the enactment of the above amendment, while ULIPs having premium payable exceeding Rs 2, 50,000/- have been excluded from the purview of clause (10D) of section 10 of the Act, all other kinds of life insurance policies are still eligible for exemption irrespective of the amount of premium payable.

5. In order to curb such misuse, it is proposed to tax income from insurance policies (other than ULIP for which provisions already exists) having premium or aggregate of premium above Rs 5,00,000 in a year. Income is proposed to be exempt if received on the death of the insured person. This income shall be taxable under the head “income from other sources”. Deduction shall be allowed for premium paid, if such premium has not been claimed as deduction earlier. The proposed provision shall apply for policies issued on or after 1st April, 2023. There will not be any change in taxation for polices issued before this date. Hence, it is proposed to amend the Act so as to-

(i) insert a new proviso (sixth proviso) to clause (10D) of the section 10 of the Act to provide that nothing contained in this clause shall apply with respect to any life insurance policy (other than a unit linked insurance policy) issued on or after the 1st April, 2023, if the amount of premium payable for any of the previous year during the term of such policy exceeds five lakh rupees;

(ii) insert a new proviso (seventh proviso) to clause (10D) of section 10 of the Act to provide that if the premium is payable by a person for more than one life insurance policy (other than unit linked insurance policy), issued on or after the 1st April, 2023, the provisions of this clause shall apply only with respect to those life insurance policies (other than unit linked insurance policies), where the aggregate amount of premium does not exceed the amount referred to in the sixth proviso in any of the previous years during the term of any of those policies;

(iii) amend the existing sixth proviso (new proposed eighth proviso) to clause (10D) of section 10 of the Act to provide that the provisions of the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh provisos shall not apply to any sum received on the death of a person;

(iv) insert clause (xiii) in sub-section (2) of section 56 of the Act to provide where any sum is received (including the amount allocated by way of bonus) at any time during a previous year, under a life insurance policy, which is not exempt under clause (10D) of section 10 of the Act, the sum so received as exceeds the aggregate of the premium paid during the term of such life insurance policy shall be chargeable to income-tax under the head “Income from other sources”. If the premium paid had been claimed as deduction in any other provision of the Act such premium will not be reduced from sum so received. Computation mechanism shall be prescribed. This would not apply to ULIP or Keyman insurance policies whose taxation is governed by other existing provisions of the Act

(v) insert an Explanation to clause (xiii) in sub-section (2) of section 56 of the Act to provide that for the purposes of this clause, "unit linked insurance policy" shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in Explanation 3 to clause (10D) of section 10 of the Act;

(vi) insert sub-clause (xviid) in clause (24) of section 2 of the Act to provide that income shall include any sum referred to in clause (xiii) of sub-section (2) of section 56 of the Act.

6. These amendments will take effect from 1st April, 2024 and will accordingly apply to the assessment year 2024-25 and subsequent assessment years.

[clauses 3, 5 & 32]

Full Text:

Union Budget 2023-24 + FINANCE Bill, 2023