Government To Bring Instant Allotment Of PAN Through Aadhaar: Nirmala Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday during her Budget 2020 presentation announced that to ease allotment of PAN, new process of instantly allotting PAN through Aadhaar will be brought. During her 3-hour long presentation, the Finance Minister made a slew of announcements starting from housing, education, health to manufacture. Sitharaman said that the dividend distribution tax has been shifted to individuals instead of companies.

In her second Budget presentation, the Finance Minister said concessional tax rate of 15 per cent has been extended to power generation companies. The government plans 100 per cent tax concession to sovereign wealth funds on investment in infra projects, she added.

Sitharaman further said concessional withholding rate of 5 per cent on interest payment to non-residents has been extended up to June 30, 2022. The Finance Minister also proposed deferment of tax payment by employees on employee stock ownership plan (ESOPs) from startups by five years.

National logistics policy to be released soon: Nirmala Sitharaman

The government of Saturday said that a national logistics policy will be released soon which will set up a single window e-logistics market and focus on employment generation and making MSMEs competitive.

"National logistics policy will soon be released," Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said while presenting the Budget for 2020-21. Explaining further, she said the proposed policy will clarify the role of the Centre, states and also key regulators.

"It will also create single window e-logistics market and focus on generation of employment, MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) competitive," she said. The government has been striving hard to bring down logistics cost for global competitiveness.