Union Budget focuses on compliance, taxpayer ease

Union Budget 2026–27 places a strong emphasis on encouraging tax compliance while ensuring greater administrative ease for individual taxpayers, said B Lakshminarayana, Additional Commissioner, CGST, at a Post-Budget Analysis session organised by the CII Vijayawada Zone here on Thursday. Addressing industry representatives, Lakshminarayana said the Budget maintains stability by keeping individual income tax rates unchanged, while introducing several facilitative measures.

He said that the simplified version of the Income-tax Act, scheduled to come into effect from April 1, is expected to be accompanied by easy-to-understand, redesigned return forms, making tax filing more user-friendly. Lakshminara yana also referred to the proposed one-time Foreign Assets Disclosure Scheme, which would enable taxpayers to declare foreign assets and foreign-source income from earlier years without fear of prosecution, thereby promoting voluntary compliance.

On the indirect tax front, he welcomed major customs duty relief for critical minerals by extending exemptions to nuclear power projects, critical nuclear minerals and bio-gas blended CNG, describing it as a positive step towards strengthening India’s clean energy ecosystem.