At the start of August, the Indian authorities published in the country’s official Gazette the measures announced in the July 5 budget, which have since received Presidential Assent. Among the key measures contained in the budget were provisions to ensure that the scope of the lower 25 percent corporate income tax rate will be expanded to cover the vast majority of Indian businesses, with a figure of 99.3 percent having been mooted.

Previously, the lower 25 percent rate is levied on those businesses with turnover not exceeding INR2.5bn (USD36.5m), and on manufacturing firms. This threshold is being raised to INR4bn.

Other salient tax measures in the Budget, in addition to measures impacting individual taxpayers, included the launch of a new dispute resolution service to resolve legacy service tax and excise duty-related disputes; confirmation that there will be a single monthly GST return along with other administrative simplifications; and confirmation that India will roll out an electronic invoice system, to eventually replace the e-way bill system and enable returns to be pre-filled.

For more information on this, and other topical international tax matters, please visit: https://www.cchgroup.com/roles/corporations/international-solutions/research/global-tax-weekly-a-closer-look

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