Taxation Bill aims to make India a more
attractive, predictable for global capital, manufacturing: Finmin sources
The Taxation and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill (ToLA)
aims to make India a more attractive and predictable place for global capital,
manufacturing and business to come and stay, sources in the Finance Ministry
said. Further, they said there are three broad themes: Attracting Foreign
Capital, Make in India and Ease of Doing Business.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced the
Bill in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. The Bill aims to amend Finance Act 2026, the
Income Tax Act 2025 and the Payment and Settlement Systems Act beside repealing
an ordinance promulgated in June to provide tax exemption to foreign investors.
Talking about themes of 'Attracting Foreign Capital'
and 'Ease of Doing Business' a source explained that overseas players are often
unsure whether operating in or through India will create an unexpected tax
exposure. Various proposals of the Bill give clear, stable and predictable tax
treatment as well as a process to get the desired tax treatment. One such
proposal is reducing the number of conditions to 5 from 13 for Eligible
Investment Fund (EIF) managed from India to avail tax exemption on its global
income.
The Bill cuts this list of conditions down sharply,
keeping only what is essential to prevent misuse and round tripping of money by
Indian residents. A fund manager can now relocate to India without the foreign
fund being treated as doing business in India, a source said.
Proposal for data centre aims to bring clearer and
simpler rules for data centres Foreign cloud companies that use Indian data
centres were earlier promised a tax exemption, but with conditions of clearing
several layers of government notification and approval. The proposed Bill
removes these approval requirements and, importantly, allows Indian data
centres to be run on a leased basis rather than only under direct ownership.
Long-term certainty
On the issue of theme of 'Make in India', another
source said that measures proposed in the Bill indents to give long-term
certainty to global companies bringing equipment, components and materials to
have goods made in India. For example, when a foreign company supplies
machinery and tooling to an Indian factory that makes electronics on its
behalf, its income from doing so was made tax free. The time limit was set as
five years.
Based on representations from stakeholders, it was
felt that the exemption window is too short to plan large, long-term
investments. The Bill extends this exemption by another 10 years, giving a much
longer horizon of certainty. Now, total exemption period is 15 years (i.e.)
into FY 2040-41, he said. The Bill also clearly defines the electronic goods
covered under the provisions such as mobile phones, laptops, personal computers,
tablets, servers and their key parts and accessories.
Talking about proposal for rough diamond, sources
explained that since 2016, foreign diamond miners have been allowed to display
rough diamonds in special zones in Mumbai and Surat without being taxed merely
for showing them. Now the Bill fully exempts the income of foreign diamond
miners and the traders connected with them (i.e.) sight holders, brokers,
aggregators and auction houses, from selling rough diamonds in these zones, for
a period of 15 years.
The aim is to shift a meaningful share of the
global rough diamond trade to India and to build a financing ecosystem around
it, second source concluded.
www.thehindubusinessline.com,
dt. 05-08-2026