India Announces Major Tax Cuts To Boost Investment

USV Private Limited, an Indian multinational pharmaceutical, and biotechnology company based in Mumbai reacting quickly to the developments and leveraging on the government’s surprise corporate tax rate cut on September 20 announced that it will proceed with its investment of Rs 400 crore on a new state-of-art formulation plant at Vadodara in Gujarat.

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The company noted that the announcement by the government has provided the much-needed boost to the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector that requires investments to provide world-class medicines to the population, at large. While the tax cut announced by the government will increase capital spending and generate employment in the pharmaceutical sector, these investments will also go a long way to improve sustainability and capacities in pharmaceutical manufacturing.

In order to promote growth and investment in India, the Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitaraman announced that the Government of India has brought in the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Ordinance 2019 to make certain amendments in the Income-tax Act 1961 and the Finance (No. 2) Act 2019.

The Finance Minister said “a new provision has been inserted in the Income-tax Act with effect from FY 2019-20 which allows any domestic company an option to pay income-tax at the rate of 22% subject to the condition that they will not avail any exemption/ incentive. The effective tax rate for these companies shall be 25.17% inclusive of surcharge & cess. Also, such companies shall not be required to pay Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT).”

She also noted that in order to attract fresh investment in manufacturing and thereby provide boost to ‘Make-in-India’ initiative of the government, another new provision has been inserted in the Income-tax Act with effect from FY 2019-20 which allows any new domestic company incorporated on or after October 1, 2019 making fresh investment in manufacturing, an option to pay income-tax at the rate of 15%. This benefit is available to companies that do not avail of any exemption/incentive and commences their production on or before March 31, 2023. The effective tax rate for these companies shall be 17.01% inclusive of surcharge & cess. Also, such companies shall not be required to pay MAT.