Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced the new Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which aims to provide tax exemptions to subscribers of the Unified Pension Scheme.
Later in the day the Parliament passed the new income tax bill to replace the six-decade-old Income Tax Act, 1961, that will come into force from April 1, 2026.
Piloting the Income Tax Bill, 2025, in the Rajya Sabha, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said it does not impose any new tax rate and only simplifies the language, which is required for understanding the complex income tax laws.
The new bill removes redundant provisions and archaic language and reduces the number of Sections from 819 in the Income Act of 1961 to 536 and the number of chapters from 47 to 23.
According to PTI, The Bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha, also incorporates changes in the scheme of block assessment with regard to Income Tax search cases, and to provide for certain direct tax benefits to public investment funds of Saudi Arabia.
The Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2025, seeks to amend the Income-tax Act, 1961 and also to amend the Finance Act, 2025.
The government in July announced that all tax benefits available under the New Pension Scheme (NPS) shall apply to the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS), which was implemented from April 1, 2025.
