Cash transactions limit at Rs 2 lakh

AMN / NEW DELHI

Government today moved a fresh proposal to cap cash transactions at 2 lakh rupees instead of 3 lakh rupees as provided in the Union Budget 2017-18. It is one of the important amendments introduced in the Finance Bill 2017.

In a tweet, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said, the penalty for a violation will be a fine equivalent to the value of the transaction. Finance Minister Arun Jailtey moved the Finance Bill in the Lok Sabha for consideration and passing.

The bill seeks to give effect to the financial proposals of the Central Government for the financial year 2017-18.

AADHARAccording to the amendments proposed by Finance Minister , income tax payers would have to declare their Aadhaar number in all tax returns filed from 1st of July. They would also have to link the Aadhaar number with the PAN before the July deadline. According to the bill, PAN cards that are not linked will be deemed invalid.

Initiating the debate on the Finance Bill, Deepender Singh Hooda of Congress demanded the government to cut the duties on petrol and diesel by at least five rupees. He said, the rate of crude oil in the International market has come down and the government has saved around 2 lakh crore rupees due to this and its benefit should be passed on to the consumers.

He alleged that during UPA rule the investment proposals was to the tune of over 17 lakh crore rupees which have now come down to 3.93 lakh crore rupees in 2016. He also urged the government to waive off farm loans and increase the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of produce of farmers.

Rakesh Singh of BJP termed the Union Budget as historic and said that it is in the interest of the nation. He said, once the GST is implemented the country’s tax net will expand and states will also be benefitted from the new tax regime. He said, this year the country’s food-grain production is estimated at 27.2 crore tonnes which will be a record. Mr Singh also rejected the opposition allegations of slowing down of GDP due to demonetisation and said, the country’s GDP is 7 per cent.

Earlier, N K Premachandran of RSP opposed the inclusion of various proposals other than tax proposals in the Finance Bill. He demanded the government to bring separate legislations except the tax proposals.

Mr Jaitley said, there is no violation of rules as these provisions are incidental to the tax provisions and therefore amendments to various Acts have been included in the Finance Bill. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan also said, if the provisions are incidental to the tax proposals they may be included in the bill.