Will make up for revenue forgone, says Sitharaman

Union Finance Minister NIRMALA SITHARAMAN, along with her team of bureaucrats, delved into the fine print of the 2024-25 Budget documents in a press conference, detailing the government's road map on bringing down the debt-to-GDP ratio and bold tax measures. Ruchika Chitravanshi, Shrimi Choudhary, and Harsh Kumar report

- Ruchika Chitravanshi, Shrimi Choudhary, and Harsh Kumar

• On revenue mobilisation due to capital gains

• Sitharaman: Revenue mobilisation is not just taxbased. Mobilisations from nontax revenue are also coming up, including dividends from PSUs, optimum utilisation of asset monetisation, and generating resources from newer areas. In all, revenue is going to be mobilised better, and as a result of this, the revenue forgone will be now made up for.

Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra: Revenue of about ₹37,000 crore will be forgone, while ₹29,000 crore will be mobilised Q8 through direct taxes... ₹29,000 crore primarily comprises three taxes, which are the increase in the securities transaction tax (STT), only on derivatives, share buyback (taxed) in the hand of recipient, and capital gains; ₹15,000 crore will come from capital gains. On the indirect tax front, there will be a revenue forgone of about 8,000 crore, due to a reduction in Customs duty on commodities, particularly gold. Then there will be revenue forgone because of tweaking of tax rates of personal income tax and increased standard deduction.

• On bringing down debt-to-GDP ratio Finance Secretary