President Droupadi Murmu on Friday gave her assent to the Finance (No 2) Bill, 2024, which was approved by Parliament last week.
With this move, the Finance Bill (No 2) 2024 as passed by Parliament has been enacted into law, bringing to an end the entire budget exercise of Modi 3.0’s first full fledged budget for 2024-25.
Lok Sabha had last Wednesday (August 7) approved the Finance (No 2) Bill 2024 by voice vote after Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman moved as many as 45 official amendments.
One of the significant amendments moved was the relaxation to the Budget proposal on long capital gains tax change on real estate.
The amendment moved last Wednesday allowed taxpayers an option to switch to a new lower tax rate or stay with the old regime that had higher rate with indexation benefit.
In her budget speech, Sitharaman had among other things proposed to lower the long-term capital gains tax on real estate to 12.5 per cent from 20 per cent but without the indexation benefit. However, the proposal was amended on Wednesday last to give the option.
The Rajya Sabha had last Thursday returned the Finance (No 2) Bill 2024 after Sitharaman gave a reply to the debate.