Finance Bill passed in Lok Sabha with 45 amendments

The Finance Bill 2023 was passed in Lok Sabha on Friday even as Opposition leaders clamoured demanding Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the Adani-Hindenburg row.

Soon after the bill tabled by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the House was adjourned to meet again on March 27 as the opposition demanded probe into the allegations against Adani.

There were 45 amendments made in the Bill with an addition of 20 more sections.

Committee to address pension issue

Finance Minister Sitharaman proposed setting up of a committee under Finance Secretary to look into issues relating to pension for government employees. The committee will also come up with a plan to address the need of employees while also maintaining the fiscal prudence in order to protect the common citizens.

Credit card payments

FM Sitharaman also said that the Credit card payments for foreign tours are not being captured under the Liberalised Remittances Scheme (LRS) and RBI will look into the matter.

Mutual funds with up to 35% equity to be taxed

One of the amendments made in the bill on Friday is that the investments in mutual funds with up to 35 per cent equity exposure to domestic companies, more specifically debt funds will be taxed as per the investors income tax slab rate. This means that this will be equal to other bank fixed deposits, where the capital gains are added to the investors income and taxed based on the individuals tax slabs.

Earlier on Thursday, the Lok Sabha passed demandss for grants authorising expenditure of Rs 45 lakh crore for 2023-24.