Amendment of section 17.
10. In section 17 of the Income-tax Act,––
(i) in clause (1), after sub-clause (viii), the following subclause shall be inserted, namely:––
“(ix) the contribution made by the Central Government in the previous year, to the Agniveer Corpus Fund account of an individual enrolled in the Agnipath Scheme referred to in section 80CCH;”;
(ii) in clause (2), with effect from the 1st day of April, 2024,––
(a) in sub-clause (i), after the word “employer”, the words “computed in such manner as may be prescribed” shall be inserted;
(b) for sub-clause (ii) and Explanations 1 to 4 thereto, the following shall be substituted, namely:––
“(ii) the value of any accommodation provided to the assessee by his employer at a concessional rate.
Explanation.-For the purposes of this sub-clause, it is clarified that accommodation shall be deemed to have been provided at a concessional rate, if the value of accommodation computed in such manner as may be prescribed, exceeds the rent recoverable from, or payable by, the assessee;”.
Notes on Clauses:
Clause 10 of the Bill seeks to amend section 17 of the Income-tax Act relating to “Salary”, “perquisite” and “profits in lieu of salary” defined.
It is proposed to insert a new sub-clause (ix) in clause (1) of the said section so as to provide that the contribution made by the Central Government in the previous year to the Agniveer Corpus Fund account of an individual enrolled in the Agnipath Scheme referred to in section 80CCH shall be considered as salary of that individual.
This amendment will take effect from 1st April, 2023 and will, accordingly, apply in relation to the assessment year 2023-2024 and subsequent assessment years.
As per clause (2) of the said section, “perquisite”, inter alia, includes value of rent-free accommodation or value of any accommodation provided to employees by the employer at a concessional rate.
It is further proposed to amend sub-clause (i) and substitute sub-clause (ii) of clause (2) of the said section so as to provide that the method of computation for the value of rent free accommodation provided to the assessee by his employer and the value of any accommodation provided to the assessee by his employer at a concessional rate shall be computed in such manner as may be provided by rules.
It is also proposed to clarify that accommodation shall be deemed to have been provided at a concessional rate if the value of accommodation computed in such manner as may be provided by rules exceeds the rent recoverable from, or payable by, the assessee.
These amendments will take effect from 1st April, 2024 and will, accordingly, apply in relation to the assessment year 2024-2025 and subsequent assessment years.
