1) For ordinary taxpayers and salaried families
- New law you’ll file under
- A New Income Tax Act, 2025 is set to take effect from April 2026.
- Simplified Income Tax Rules and redesigned Forms are to be notified shortly for easier compliance.
- Relief and day-to-day compliance easing
- Motor Accident Claims Tribunal interest awarded to a natural person will be exempt from Income Tax, and TDS on this will be removed.
- Form 15G / 15H filing for TDS on dividends/interest etc. will shift to a single-window filing with depositories.
- More flexibility for return corrections
- Time to revise returns is proposed to extend from 31 December to up to 31 March (with nominal fees).
- The tax return filing timeline will be staggered.
- Lower TCS on specific outward spends
- Overseas tour program packages: TCS reduced to 2% (from 2–20% currently).
- LRS remittances for education and medical: TCS reduced to 2% (from 5%).
- If you’re a small taxpayer with overseas assets/income
- A one-time 6-month foreign asset disclosure scheme is proposed to disclose overseas income/assets.
- Non-disclosure of non-immovable foreign assets with aggregate value below ₹20 lakh will get immunity from prosecution, retrospectively from 1.10.2024.
- If you’re involved in a dispute and want closure
- Honest taxpayers willing to settle disputes will be able to close cases by paying an additional amount in lieu of penalty.
2) For SMEs, micro enterprises, and Tier-II/Tier-III business ecosystems
- Growth capital aimed at building “champions”
- A dedicated ₹10,000 crore SME Growth Fund is proposed to create future champions through incentives tied to select criteria.
- The Self-Reliant India Fund gets an additional ₹2,000 crore to keep micro enterprises connected to risk capital.
- “Corporate Mitras” for compliance and capability
- Professional bodies—ICAI, ICSI, ICMAI—will be facilitated to design short-term modular courses and practical tools to develop Corporate Mitras, especially in Tier-II and Tier-III towns.
- Export pathway becomes easier for small sellers
- The ₹10 lakh per consignment value cap on courier exports is proposed to be fully removed, supporting small businesses, artisans and start-ups using e-commerce.
3) For industry: manufacturing, legacy clusters, and strategic supply chains
- Biopharma manufacturers and pharma R&D ecosystem
- Biopharma SHAKTI is announced with ₹10,000 crore over 5 years to develop India as a global biopharma manufacturing hub.
- A biopharma-focused network is planned through 3 new NIPERs, upgrades to 7 existing NIPERs, and 1,000+ accredited clinical trial sites.
- Semiconductor and electronics value chain players
- India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) 2.0 is proposed to enable equipment/materials production, full-stack Indian IP design, supply-chain strengthening, and industry-led R&D/training centres.
- Electronics Components Manufacturing Scheme outlay rises to ₹40,000 crore.
- Rare earths, chemicals, capital goods, containers
- Dedicated Rare Earth Corridors planned to support Odisha, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu for mining, processing, research and manufacturing.
- States will be supported to establish 3 dedicated Chemical Parks through a challenge route on a plug-and-play cluster model.
- Hi-Tech Tool Rooms at two locations by CPSEs as digitally enabled automated service bureaus for high-precision components.
- Scheme for Enhancement of Construction and Infrastructure Equipment (CIE) to strengthen domestic manufacturing of high-value advanced CIE.
- Container Manufacturing Scheme with ₹10,000+ crore over 5 years to build a globally competitive container ecosystem.
- Textiles: fibre-to-factory-to-market
- National Fibre Scheme for natural fibres (silk, wool, jute), man-made fibres and new-age fibres.
- Textile Expansion and Employment Scheme to modernize clusters with machinery support, technology upgradation, common testing/certification.
- Mega Textile Parks (challenge mode) with focus on technical textiles value addition.
- Mahatma Gandhi Gram Swaraj initiative for khadi/handloom/handicrafts: global market linkage, branding, streamlined training/skilling, and quality processes.
- Legacy industrial clusters
- A scheme is announced to revive 200 legacy industrial clusters through infrastructure and technology upgradation to improve cost competitiveness and efficiency.
4) For infrastructure developers, logistics firms, and private capital
- More public capex
- Public capital expenditure is proposed to rise to ₹12.2 lakh crore in FY 2026–27.
- Risk de-bottlenecking for private developers
- An Infrastructure Risk Guarantee Fund is proposed to strengthen confidence about risks during the development and construction phase.
- CPSE asset recycling
- Government proposes to accelerate recycling of CPSE real estate assets by setting up dedicated REITs.
- Freight, waterways, coastal shipping, ship repair
- New Dedicated Freight Corridors proposed connecting Dankuni (East) to Surat (West).
- 20 new National Waterways to be operationalised over 5 years, starting with NW-5 in Odisha connecting Talcher/Angul and Kalinga Nagar to ports of Paradeep and Dhamra.
- Regional Centres of Excellence to be created for manpower needs.
- Ship repair ecosystem for inland waterways to be set up at Varanasi and Patna.
- Coastal Cargo Promotion Scheme proposed to shift cargo from road/rail and raise inland waterways + coastal shipping share from 6% to 12% by 2047.
- Seaplanes, last-mile connectivity, tourism
- Incentives proposed to indigenize seaplane manufacturing and improve last-mile/remote connectivity and tourism.
- Seaplane VGF Scheme proposed to support operations.
5) For cities, urban infrastructure, and municipal finance
- City Economic Regions (CERs)
- ₹5,000 crore over 5 years per CER is proposed via challenge mode with a reform-cum-results based financing mechanism.
- High-speed rail “growth connectors”
- Seven corridors proposed: Mumbai–Pune; Pune–Hyderabad; Hyderabad–Bengaluru; Hyderabad–Chennai; Chennai–Bengaluru; Delhi–Varanasi; Varanasi–Siliguri.
- Municipal bonds
- An incentive of ₹100 crore is proposed for a single bond issuance above ₹1,000 crore to encourage higher-value issuances by large cities.
6) For the financial sector and investment framework
- Banking roadmap
- A High Level Committee on Banking for Viksit Bharat will be set up to comprehensively review the sector and align it with the next phase of growth while safeguarding stability, inclusion and consumer protection.
- Public sector NBFC restructuring
- Government proposes to restructure Power Finance Corporation and Rural Electrification Corporationto achieve scale and efficiency.
- Foreign investment rules
- A comprehensive review of the Foreign Exchange Management (Non-debt Instruments) Rules is proposed to create a more contemporary, user-friendly framework consistent with evolving economic priorities.
7) For healthcare, education, skilling, and the “services-led jobs” agenda
- Services-sector focused pipeline
- A High-Powered Education to Employment and Enterprise Standing Committee is proposed with focus on the services sector as a core driver of Viksit Bharat.
- Allied health and medical tourism
- Upgrading existing AHP institutions and establishing new ones in private and government sectors.
- 100,000 Allied Health Professionals planned over 5 years.
- Five Regional Medical Hubs proposed for medical tourism.
- AYUSH
- 3 new All India Institutes of Ayurveda to be established.
- Education infrastructure
- 5 University Townships to be created near major industrial/logistic corridors via challenge route.
- Through VGF/capital support, 1 girls’ hostel in every district is proposed.
- Tourism capability
- National Council for Hotel Management and Catering Technology to be upgraded to a National Institute of Hospitality.
- Pilot to upskill 10,000 guides across 20 tourist sites via a standardized 12-week hybrid course in collaboration with an IIM.
- National Destination Digital Knowledge Grid to digitally document places of cultural/spiritual/heritage significance.
- Creative economy / AVGC
- Support for the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies, Mumbai to set up AVGC Content Creator Labs in 15,000 secondary schools and 500 colleges.
- Sports
- Khelo India Mission proposed to transform the sports sector over the next decade.
8) For farmers, coastal agriculture, and agri-tech users
- Water assets
- Integrated development of 500 reservoirs and Amrit Sarovars is proposed.
- High-value agriculture (coastal focus)
- Support proposed for crops such as coconut, sandalwood, cocoa, cashew in coastal areas.
- A Coconut Promotion Scheme is proposed to lift production and productivity.
- AI-enabled advisory and integration
- Bharat-VISTAAR is proposed as a multilingual AI tool integrating AgriStack portals and the ICAR package of agricultural practices with AI systems.
9) For Divyangjan, mental health systems, and trauma care
- Employment-linked skilling
- Divyangjan Kaushal Yojana proposed for task-oriented, process-driven roles in IT, AVGC, hospitality, food & beverages.
- Mental health infrastructure
- Government proposes to set up NIMHANS-2 in north India.
- National Mental Health Institutes in Ranchi and Tezpur to be upgraded as Regional Apex Institutions.
10) For Purvodaya states, North-East, mobility and tourism circuits
- East Coast Industrial Corridor
- An integrated corridor proposed with a well-connected node at Durgapur.
- Tourism and public transport
- Creation of 5 tourism destinations in the 5 Purvodaya states and provision of 4,000 e-buses.
- Buddhist circuits
- A scheme is proposed for Buddhist circuits in Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura.
11) For global investors, non-resident businesses, and India-based cross-border operations
- Cloud + data centres
- Tax holiday till 2047 for foreign companies providing cloud services globally using data centre services from India.
- Safe harbour of 15% on cost if the India data centre provider is a related entity.
- Bonded zones and warehousing
- Safe harbour for non-residents for component warehousing in bonded warehouse at 2% of invoice value.
- 5-year income tax exemption for non-residents providing capital goods/equipment/tooling to toll manufacturers in a bonded zone.
- Non-resident experts
- Exemption to global (non-India sourced) income of a non-resident expert for a 5-year stay under notified schemes.
- Non-residents under presumptive taxation
- Exemption from MAT to all non-residents who pay tax on presumptive basis.
12) For importers, exporters, travellers, and port logistics operators (Customs)
- Lower personal import tariff
- Tariff rate on all dutiable goods imported for personal use reduced from 20% to 10%.
- Health-related import relief
- Basic customs duty on 17 drugs/medicines exempted.
- Duty-free personal import of drugs/medicines and food for 7 more rare diseases.
- Faster clearance architecture
- Cargo clearance approvals across agencies to be processed through a single interconnected digital window by FY-end.
- Food/drugs/plant/animal/wildlife clearance processes (about 70% of interdicted cargo) to be operationalised on the system by April 2026.
- For goods with no compliance requirement: clearance immediately after online registration.
- Trust-based facilitation
- Duty deferral for Tier-2 and Tier-3 AEOs enhanced from 15 to 30 days (also for eligible manufacturer-importers).
- Advance ruling validity extended from 3 years to 5 years.
- Trusted importer bill of entry + arrival to trigger automatic customs notification (for goods not needing compliance).
- Scanning and risk assessment
- Expansion of non-intrusive scanning with advanced imaging and AI risk assessment aiming to scan every container across major ports.
- Export rules supporting fishers and small exporters
- Fish catch by Indian vessels in EEZ/high seas to be duty-free; landing at a foreign port treated as export.
- Removal of ₹10 lakh cap on courier exports to boost global access for small businesses and artisans.