Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to introduce Income-Tax Bill 2025 in Lok Sabha on February 13

 

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to introduce Income-Tax Bill 2025 in Lok Sabha on February 13


Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will introduce the new Income-Tax Bill 2025 in the Lok Sabha on February 13. The Bill aims to consolidate and amend the taxation laws of the country.

“Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman to move for leave to introduce a bill to consolidate and amend the law relating to income-tax,” official list of business for the parliament session scheduled for Thursday reads.

The new income tax bill seeks to replace the six-decade-old Income Tax Act of 1964 which has become increasingly voluminous as amendments were added over the years. The new Bill does not introduce any new taxes but only simplifies the language of the existing Income Tax Act. The new law is expected to come into effect from the beginning of April 2026.

Removal of ‘obsolete’ sections

According to experts, the new Bill will eliminate several ‘obsolete’ sections of the existing Act, reduce litigation, and improve compliance. It is also expected to simplify the tax laws — ensuring they are more transparent, easier to interpret and taxpayer friendly.



Income-Tax Bill 2025: Simplified language

The bill will also replace terminologies such as assessment and previous year with a simplified concept of 'tax year' as part of the move to make the document easier to understand. Tax year — the 12-month period beginning from April 1 — will replace the present concept of assessment and the previous year. Currently, income earned in the ‘previous year’ is being assessed in the ‘assessment year’. To give an example, income earned between April 2024 and March 2025 is now assessed in FY 2025-26.

The new bill has omitted redundant sections, like those relating to Fringe Benefit Tax. It is free from 'explanations or provisos', thereby making it easier to read and comprehend. The word 'notwithstanding'—which was used excessively in the existing Income Tax Act—has been done away with in the new Bill. It has been replaced almost everywhere with the term 'irrespective'.



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Booming Cross-Border E-Commerce Activity in Asia Presents Opportunities for European Merchants VARIOUS Booming Cross-Border E-Commerce Activity in Asia Presents Opportunities for European Merchants by Fintechnews Switzerland September 12, 2023 International e-commerce spending by JCB cardholders based in Asia increased by 52% between 2021 and 2022, presenting a significant opportunity for merchants in Europe as shoppers across the region show increasing willingness to purchase goods online from foreign businesses, a new paper by the Japanese credit card company shows. The report, titled “Click into Place: Unpacking Card Abandonment”, provides insights on online spending from Asia, sharing the latest research and data on e-commerce trends to help businesses boost e-commerce sales and stand out from the crowd. According to the report, cross-border e-commerce activity increased substantially last year, with India leading the region with a staggering five-fold growth, followed by Indonesia and Vietnam, where cross-border e-commerce more than doubled between 2021 and 2023. In Hong Kong and the Philippines, global e-commerce spending grew by around 80%, while China, Taiwan and Thailand saw growth of about 50%. Further growth is expected in the future as the cart abandonment rate in Asia’s e-commerce industry is currently the highest in the world, standing at over 84% as of March 2023 compared with about 70% for customers globally. High cart abandonment in Asia suggests that there is potential for more expansion in the region if merchants are able to solve customers’ friction points and improve experience, the report says. cross border e-commerce image via freepik Addressing cart abandonment Cart abandonment is the act of a shopper adding an item to an online shopping cart but leaving the website without completing the purchase. It represents a significant amount of lost revenue for merchants in the online space. According to JCB, there are several cause of cart abandonment, with the first common one being the payment journey. In Asia, complicated checkouts and unexpected payment processes are cited as a reason for abandoning carts, with 55% of online shoppers in the region identifying long login and sign-up forms as a key source of frustrated. To address this paint point and boost sales, merchants must enhance customer experience by streamlining their checkout process with a well-designed website. They should also leverage advanced technology and design practices to balance security with user experience, using for example pre-fill information and tokenization to speed up the checkout process, as well as technology like 3DS authentication to increase consumer trust. Such improvements not only increase immediate sales and conversion rates but also foster long-term brand loyalty, the report says. The second cause of cart abandonment outlined in the JCB report is unmet customer expectations around how they can pay, and how easy it is to do so. Understanding customer psychology is vital to reduce cart abandonment in e-commerce, the report says. To cater to local preferences, merchants should offer multiple languages and payment currencies, provide a personalized customer journey, and ensure that payment processes are seamless across both mobile and desktop platforms. This is critical become mobile purchases are on the rise, representing 43% of e-commerce sales globally in 2023. In Asia-Pacific (APAC), that share is even higher, with mobile commerce constituting 75.8% of sales in 2022. Finally, the third and final cause of cart abandonment outlined in the report is the failure to react to external factors, such as market trends and changes in consumer behaviour. During the COVID-19 pandemic, e-commerce surged, especially in Asia, due to increased internet and mobile device access, the report says. However, the global economic downturn has somewhat hindered e-commerce growth and altered customer behaviors. This has led many consumers to start using online carts as a modern form of window shopping, adding items for future consideration or price comparisons. This behavior, which may lead to cart abandonment, is likely to rise with economic concerns and decreased impulse buying, it warns. To counter this, merchants should offer competitive pricing and employ strategies like remarketing and non-intrusive exit-intent pop-ups. They should also bolster customer confidence with reviews and security guarantees. e-commerce cart abondon image via Unsplash Cross-border e-commerce on the rise Over the past couple of years, cross-border e-commerce has witnessed significant growth, driven by the proliferation of the Internet and mobile devices, improved logistics, payment innovations and the rise of global e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Alibaba and eBay. With disposable income rising in developing markets, e-commerce merchants and marketplaces will continue pivoting towards them, pushing cross-border online shopping to new heights. According to Juniper Research, cross-border e-commerce transaction values will reach US$1.6 trillion this year. Through 2028, that number is projected to grow by more than twofold to US$3.4 trillion. In comparison, domestic e-commerce transaction values are set to grow by 48% over the same period, implying that much of the growth in the e-commerce payments market will in the cross-border area. In 2022, around 168 million Chinese customers had engaged in cross-border import e-commerce, growing from 155 million the previous year, data from market research and analytics platform Statista show. The trade value of cross-border import business reached approximately 34 trillion yuan (US$4.6 billion) that year. In Southeast Asia, about a quarter (23%) of consumers said they are shopping more at merchants based in other countries in the region since the start of the pandemic, while a similar number (22%) are shopping more in stores outside of Southeast Asia, a 2021 study by ACI Worldwide and YouGov reveals. Featured image credit: Edited from freepik Get the hottest Fintech Switzerland News once a month in your Inbox email address ASIA CROSS-BORDER E-COMMERCE ABOUT AUTHOR MORE INFO ABOUT AUTHOR Fintechnews Switzerland Fintechnews Switzerland More by Fintechnews Switzerland