New Delhi Mar 24 PTI The Lok Sabha on Friday approved the Finance Bill which gives effect to new taxation thus completing the Budgetary exercise for 2022-23 fiscalThe Finance Bill was approved by the Lower House after accepting 39 official amendments moved by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and rejecting the amendments proposed by the opposition by voice voteReplying to a discussion on the Finance Bill Sitharaman said India was probably the only country that did not resort to new taxes to fund the recovery of the economy hit by the COVID pandemicShe said that according to an OECD report as many as 32 countries have increased the tax rates after the pandemicInstead we put more money where multiplier effect would be maximum she said while referring to the Budgets focus on raising capital expenditureThe Budget 2022-23 raised Capex by 354 per cent to Rs 75 lakh crore to continue the public investment-led recovery of the pandemic battered economyObserving that the Modi government believes in lowering taxes she said the reduction in corporate tax has helped the economy government and companies and we are seeing the progress She said Rs 73 lakh crore has been collected as corporate tax so far this fiscalThe number of taxpayers has increased to 91 crore from 5 crore a few years back she said adding the government is taking steps to widen the tax base and the faceless assessment has been received well by peopleResponding to the concerns expressed by members on imposing customs duty on umbrella she said it was done to encourage domestic manufacturing by MSMEsShe further said that IFSC in Gujarat is making steady progress and several global funds and insurance companies are setting up offices in the International Financial Services Centre at Gujarat International Finance Tec-City GIFT PTI JD CS BAL

Mumbai Aug 25 PTI The government may introduce legislative amendments in the Budget session of Parliament to enable Indian companies to directly list certain prescribed classes of securities abroad Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj said on Wednesday Direct listing of securities overseas by Indian entities is allowed but there are certain issues which need to be sorted out for this to become a success he said without elaborating on the hurdles The direct listing is under consideration of the government because to make it success there would be requirements of some amendments to legislations to ensure there is smooth trading of these securities outside the territory of India We are in discussions with the players who are asking for this Maybe in the Budget session we will see what we can do Bajaj said The two-part Budget session of Parliament usually commences in the last week of January every year Bajaj also said there is no mandatory requirement of listing of such securities at the International Financial Services Centre IFSC at this point of time However he said it will be looked at when the regulations are framed Parliament in September 2020 passed the Companies Amendment Bill 2020 that permitted direct overseas listing of Indian corporates among other things Amendments were carried out in Section 23 of the Companies Act 2013 to include enabling provisions to allow direct listing of securities by Indian public companies in permissible foreign jurisdictions Listing of Indian companies in foreign stock exchanges is expected to increase the competitiveness of Indian companies in terms of access to capital broader investor base and better valuations Currently quite a few Indian companies have American Depository Receipts ADRs that are traded in the US Some corporates also have Global Depository Receipts GDRs A depository receipt is a foreign currency denominated instrument listed on an international exchange issued by a foreign depository to a domestic custodian In 2018 market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India SEBI had proposed to allow direct listing of Indian companies on overseas bourses and of foreign firms on Indian exchanges PTI AA HV DP ABM ABM