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Income Tax Act 2025 Gets President’s Assent: Centre Notifies New Rules To Replace 1961 Law
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The new Act removes redundant provisions and archaic language and cuts the number of Sections from 819 in the Income Tax Act, 1961, to 536 and the number of chapters from 47 to 23.
Income Tax Act, 2025.
The central government on Friday notified the Income Tax Act, 2025, in the Official Gazette. It comes a day after the President gave assent to the Act on Thursday. The Act, which will come into effect from April 1, 2026, consolidates and amends the existing Income Tax Act, 1961.
“The Income-tax Act, 2025 has received the Hon’ble President’s assent on 21st Aug 2025. A landmark reform replacing the 1961 Act, it ushers in a simpler, transparent & compliance-friendly direct tax regime. Access the official document here: https://egazette.gov.in/(S(p0hzyo3qrxli3juyloktgdrv))/ViewPDF.aspx,” Income Tax India said in a post on X on August 22.
The Act was passed by Parliament in the just-concluded monsoon session.
The Income-tax Act, 2025 has received the Hon’ble President’s assent on 21st Aug 2025.A landmark reform replacing the 1961 Act, it ushers in a simpler, transparent & compliance-friendly direct tax regime.
Access the official document here: https://t.co/wOPk1PFQbP pic.twitter.com/Xw84hzpPb3
— Income Tax India (@IncomeTaxIndia) August 22, 2025
The new Act removes redundant provisions and archaic language and reduces the number of Sections from 819 in the Income Tax Act of 1961 to 536 and the number of chapters from 47 to 23. The number of words had been reduced from 5.12 lakh to 2.6 lakh in the new Income Tax Bill, and for the first time, it introduces 39 new tables and 40 new formulas, replacing the dense text of the 1961 law to enhance clarity.
As the new law will come into force from April 1, 2026, the computer systems of the Income Tax department are required to be rebooted to operationalise the new legislation.
The new Income Tax Bill was drafted within a record time of six months and introduced in the Budget session in February 2025. It was referred to the Select Committee for a comprehensive study of the Bill. Subsequently, in order to incorporate the suggestions made by the Committee, the Bill (No.1) was withdrawn and a fresh Bill (No.2) was introduced in the monsoon session of Parliament.
While presenting the revised Bill in Lok Sabha on August 11, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government had accepted “almost all of the recommendations of the Select Committee”, along with suggestions from stakeholders to ensure the law’s intent is “conveyed more accurately”.
“There are corrections in the nature of drafting, alignment of phrases, consequential changes and cross-referencing. Therefore, a decision has been taken by the government to withdraw the Income Tax Bill, 2025, as reported by the Select Committee. Consequently, Income-tax (No. 2) Bill, 2025, has been prepared to replace the Income-tax Act, 1961,” according to the statement of objects and reasons.
Key Changes Proposed By The Committee
Tax refunds
Removal of the provision that denied income-tax refunds if returns were filed after the due date.
The withdrawn version required taxpayers to file ITRs within the due date to claim a refund (Section 433). The revised Bill ensures refunds can still be claimed even if the ITR is filed late.
Inter-corporate dividends
Restoration of Section 80M deduction (Clause 148) for inter-corporate dividends for companies availing the special tax rate under Section 115BAA.
This provision had been missed in the earlier draft.
Nil TDS certificate
Taxpayers will be allowed to avail of Nil TDS certificates, enabling no tax deduction at source under certain conditions.
Exemption on anonymous donations
Anonymous donations to purely religious trusts will be exempt from tax. The exemption will not apply to trusts that are both religious and engaged in social services such as running hospitals or schools.
Digital-first tax process
The new Bill aims to make the tax process more digital, automated, and faceless, to enhance convenience and minimise the scope for corruption.
Clarification on capital gains tax rumours
Reports last month suggested that the new Bill might change capital gains tax rates. The Income Tax Department denied this in a post on X, stating that the Bill’s objective is language simplification and removal of redundant or obsolete provisions, not altering tax rates.
Haris is Deputy News Editor (Business) at news18.com. He writes on various issues related to personal finance, markets, economy and companies. Having over a decade of experience in financial journalism, Haris h…Read More
Haris is Deputy News Editor (Business) at news18.com. He writes on various issues related to personal finance, markets, economy and companies. Having over a decade of experience in financial journalism, Haris h… Read More
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The Eli Lilly logo appears on the company’s office in San Diego, California, U.S., Nov. 21, 2025.
Mike Blake | Reuters
Eli Lilly on Monday said it is lowering the cash prices of single-dose vials of its blockbuster weight loss drug Zepbound on its direct-to-consumer platform, LillyDirect, building on efforts by the company and the Trump administration to make the medicine more accessible.
The announcement also comes weeks after chief rival Novo Nordisk unveiled additional discounts on the cash prices of its obesity and diabetes drugs.
Starting Monday, cash-paying patients with a valid prescription can get the starting dose of Zepbound vials for as low as $299 per month on LillyDirect, down from a previous price of $349 per month. They can also access the next dose, 5 milligrams, for $399 per month and all other doses for $449 per month, down from $499 per month across those sizes.
Zepbound carries a list price of roughly $1,086 per month. That price point, and spotty insurance coverage for weight loss drugs in the U.S., have been significant barriers to access for some patients.
Eli Lilly’s announcement comes just weeks after President Donald Trump inked deals with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to make their GLP-1 drugs easier for Americans to get and afford. The agreements will cut the prices the government pays for the drugs, introduce Medicare coverage of obesity drugs for the first time for certain patients and offer discounted medicines on the government’s new direct-to-consumer website launching in January, TrumpRx.
But Eli Lilly’s deal with Trump centers around lowering the prices of a different form of Zepbound – a multi-dose pen – after it wins Food and Drug Administration approval.
That means Eli Lilly’s Monday announcement around cutting prices on the existing single-dose vials could allow more patients to get discounted treatments more quickly.
“We will keep working to provide more options — expanding choices for delivery devices and creating new pathways for access — so more people can get the medicines they need,” said Ilya Yuffa, president of Lilly USA and global customer capabilities, in a statement.
Eli Lilly’s stock, which has climbed more than 36% this year, fell nearly 2% on Monday. Its meteoric rise due to the success of Zepbound and its diabetes injection Mounjaro vaulted it to becoming the first health-care company to hit a $1 trillion market value last month. Though cutting prices means lower revenue per medication sold, Eli Lilly’s sales — and shares — have continued to soar through past pricing announcements as demand balloons.
With single-dose vials, patients need to use a syringe and needle to draw up the medicine and inject it into themselves. Eli Lilly first introduced that form of Zepbound in August 2024.
It’s unclear how many patients are currently using single-dose vials of Zepbound. But Eli Lilly previously said that direct-to-consumer sales now account for more than a third of new prescriptions of Zepbound.
Novo Nordisk earlier this month lowered the price of its obesity drug Wegovy and diabetes treatment Ozempic for existing cash-paying patients to $349 per month from $499 per month. That excludes the highest dose of Ozempic.
The company also launched a temporary introductory offer, which will allow new cash-paying patients to access the two lowest doses of Wegovy and Ozempic for $199 per month for the first two months of treatment.
The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) has approved a fresh increase in the price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), raising the cost for both domestic consumers and commercial users.
According to the notification issued, the LPG price has been increased by Rs7.39 per kilogram, setting the new rate at Rs209 per kg for December. As a result, the price of a domestic LPG cylinder has risen by Rs87.21, bringing the new price to Rs2,466.10.
In November, the price of LPG stood at Rs201 per kg, while the domestic cylinder was priced at Rs2,378.89.
The latest price hike is expected to put additional pressure on households already grappling with rising living costs nationwide.
New Delhi: The taxable value of all supplies under GST surged by a robust 15 per cent during September-October this year, compared to the same period in 2024 due to sharp increase in consumption triggered by the tax rate cuts on goods across sectors that kicked in from September 22, according to official sources.
The growth in the same two-month period last year was 8.6 per cent. “This surge in taxable value during ‘Bachat Utsav’ demonstrates strong consumption uplift, stimulated by reduced rates and improved compliance behaviour,” a senior official said.
He pointed out that the growth has especially been strong in sectors where rate rationalisation was implemented, such as FMCG, pharma goods, food products, automobiles, medical devices and textiles. In these sectors, the taxable value of supplies has seen significantly higher growth, confirming that lower GST rates translated directly into higher consumer spending.
“It vindicates our strategy that reducing rates on essentials and mass-use sectors would create demand-side buoyancy — a Laffer Curve–type demand uplift,” he explained.These trends confirm that GST next-gen reforms have not disrupted revenue stability, and that consumption-side buoyancy has begun to translate into higher taxable value in key sectors.
This growth is in value terms which means that since GST rates were lower, the growth in volume terms will be even higher. It is clearly visible that while the Next Gen Reforms resulted in significant Bachat — increased consumption, industry has been very proactive in passing on the GST savings to the final consumers and ensuring that there is no supply side deficiency.
As GDP private consumption data will be released much later, GST taxable value serves as the most reliable real-time proxy for consumption, and the current numbers clearly indicate sustained demand expansion, the official added.
Eli Lilly cuts cash prices of Zepbound weight loss drug vials on direct-to-consumer site
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