In the Budget for the financial year 2024-25, significant tax proposals and initiatives were introduced aimed at bolstering the financial system and providing relief to various sectors in the state. Notable measures include the reduction of VAT rates on petrol and diesel to ensure uniform pricing across the state, marking a pioneering effort in India. The abolition of land tax and mandi tax on sugar and jaggery further aimed at easing the tax burden on trade and business. The government emphasized its commitment to enhancing revenue functions while providing exemptions and reductions in stamp duty rates across various categories, including agreements for electricity connections, mortgage deeds for farmers, and transactions among family members. Other initiatives underlined in the budget include new investment policies, incentives for energy-intensive industries, and reforms in the transport and excise departments to streamline operations and promote sectoral growth. The amnesty schemes introduced provide relief to dealers and individuals, encouraging compliance through waivers on interest and penalties for overdue amounts across multiple sectors. Institutional strengthening measures across revenue-earning departments, including the introduction of e-Panjiyan 3.0 for online transactions and the establishment of an Integrated Excise Preventive & Enforcement Force, aim to enhance efficiency and transparency in administrative processes.

Press Note
Budget 2024-25
Tax Proposals

Annual Financial Statement/Budget has been brought with intent to strengthen the financial system and to provide new vision and resolution to the financial management of the State.

It is noteworthy that we have taken significant steps in this regard with the dawn of the New Government viz: –

• Reduction in VAT Rate on Petrol & Diesel in an effort to fulfill the guarantee of Hon'ble Prime Minister and first attempt in the Country regarding rates of Petrol & Diesel One State One Rate.
• Abolition of Land Tax.
• Abolition of Mandi Tax on Sugar & Jaggery.

Government has tried to give relief to common man and the Trade & Business from tax load and inflation despite the fact that Revenue plays a crucial role in the development as well as for the functioning of the public welfare schemes of the State.

Government is committed to take necessary steps in Revenue Earning departments to accelerate the pace of development in the State and provide relief to the common man & investors in the State.

1. Registration & Stamps Department: Efforts on providing relief in the Registration & Stamp Duty.

• Rationalization of applicable Rates and Reduction in Class/Categories of various instruments/documents.
• Exemption of Stamp Duty on Agreements for electricity connections, Apprenticeship Deed executed by Youths for Training, Mortgage deed executed by farmers for availing loan against crops and attestation by notaries.
• Exemption of Stamp Duty & Registration fees payable on the instruments of settlement deeds executed in favour of wife, daughter-in-law, paternal & maternal grandchildren.
• Reduction of Stamp Duty from 6 % to 2% on instruments of exchange executed between family members relating to non-agricultural immoveable property.
• Full Exemption on Registration Fees along with Stamp Duty on the House provided by Government, Private Organization or an individual on free of cost basis to the war widows or their children or the parents of the martyrs from Military & Paramilitary forces.
• Automation of the process of providing Transferable Development Rights (TDR) and exemption of Stamp Duty on issuance of TDR and reduction from 5% to 2% on the sale of TDR.
• Reduction in the Ceiling of Stamp Duty to Rs 1 Lakh and also capping the Registration Fees to Rs 25,000 on the Debt Assignment so as to facilitate easy Housing Loans to the Common man.
• Stamp Duty on Intermediary Documents like Agreement to Sale, Society Patta etc. reduced to 20% even in cases where the Local Body has not yet issued Lease/Patta.
• Reduction of Stamp Duty from 6% to 5% on the Purchase of Flats costing up to Rs 50 Lakhs in Multi Story Building.
• Exemption of Stamp Duty on the GST paid in all under construction Buildings & Flats.
• Exemption on Interest in all such cases where the Stamp Duty is deposited within one month of the determination of the Reference/ Appeal under Stamps Act.
• Reduction of Stamp Duty Rs 1000 instead of Conveyance value in such cases where the Document of Cancellation is executed within one month of the execution of the original document.
• Revenue Functionaries like Patwari, Revenue Inspector and Village Development Officers & Officers of Urban Local Bodies authorized as Site Inspectors for the purpose of Site Inspection.
• Exemption of Stamp Duty on various loan documents executed for taking loan with bank and financial instructions excluding the Principal Loan document.
• Reduction of Stamp Duty on the instruments of Amalgamation, Demerger etc. from 4% to 1% on the values of shares and reduction in the current upper limit from Rs 50 crore to Rs 25 crore.

2. Commercial Taxes Department:

• Formulation of New Investment Policy in the State and promotion of Goods & Services sold and consumed within the State.
• The following benefits will be extended under RIPS:

> Reduction of VAT Rate up to 5% on PNG for a definite period in Energy Intensive Industries.

> Promotional Incentives in cases related to revival of Sick Unit.

> Extending the benefits of RIPS through Online Portal from 15th August, 2024.

> Extending validity of Entitlement Certificate from 1 year to 2 years for availing benefits of Stamp Duty exemption.

• Formulation of New VAT Act.
• Reduction of VAT Rate on PNG & CNG from 14.5% to 10%.
• Reduction of VAT Rate from 26% to 2% on Aviation Turbine Fuel for Flying Training Organisation & Aviation Training Organisation recognised by DGCA.
• Abolition of Electricity Duty on Auxillary Power consumed by Captive Power Plants and exemption on the remaining part of Electricity Duty along with interest & penalty on the payment of 10% of the outstanding Electricity Duty.
• Development of Integrated System for Additional Resource Mobilization in Online Gaming, e-Commerce & OTT Platform services.

3. Transport Department:

• Creation of Corpus Fund of Rs 200 crore as e-Vehicle Promotion Fund under the Electric Vehicle Policy.
• Reduction of Motor Vehicle Tax from Rs 504 to Rs 400 per seat per month on all Stage Carriages plying more than 300 Kms per day on "other routes".
• Exemption of Physical Presentation of Vehicle at the time of transfer of ownership of the Vehicle and facility for retention of Registration Number on scrapping of the Vehicle.
• Exemption from compulsory submitting the Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC) at the time of issuance of Fitness Certificate of the Transport Vehicle.
• Extension of rebate from Spare Tax for newly registered vehicles from 15 days to 30 days and similar relief on the surrender of permit of Old Vehicles.
• 10% reduction of One Time Tax on Private Service Vehicles, Tourist Vehicles & Contract Carriage Vehicles
• Rationalization of Motor Vehicle Tax on Special Permit of Passenger Vehicles with more than 22 Seating Capacity to Rs 600 Per Day and on Non-Temporary Permit of Tourist Vehicle to Rs 875 Per Seat Per Month.

4. Excise Department:

• Formulation of New Excise Act on augmenting the Revenue Collection Efficiency of the Department and curbing the menace of illicit liquor.

5. Mining & Petroleum Department:

• Formulation of New Mining Policy-2024
• Reduction of Security Deposit from Rs 10 Lakh to Rs 2 Lakh on the Auction of Mining Lease of Sandstone, Masonry Stone etc. which are less than 1 hectares.
• Facility to discharge Premium in installments on the extended lease period (upto 2040) to all Lease Holders / Quarry License Holder of Minor Minerals.
• Rajasthan State Mines & Minerals, Limited shall be engaged for the production of Sand (Bajari) in view of the challenges on the supply of Sand in the State and new M-Sand Policy shall be formulated.
• Promotion of Private Sector in Mineral Exploration on the lines of Policy of Central Government.
• Doubling the Auction of Mining Blocks of Major Minerals to more than 100 as against the previous auction of mere 54 Blocks in the past 7 years.
• In first phase such 8 blocks of major minerals shall be auctioned with pre-embedded Clearances.
• Expenditure of Rs 10 Crores on the establishment of Centres of Excellences in Bikaner for Ceramics and in Udaipur for Rare Earth Elements for Research & Development in such Minerals.
• Volumetric Assessment on the production and dispatch of Minor Minerals in a phased manner. Implementation of One Time Settlement Scheme with exemption on interest & Penalty.
• Providing more than 1 lakh Gas Connections by laying 2000 KM long Gas Pipeline in 8 Cities of the State (Jaipur, Kota, Alwar, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Bundi, Ajmer and Pali)

6. Miscellaneous Points on Investment Promotion:

• Industries & Commerce:

> Exemption for seeking NOC from RIICO on Land Conversion in cases within 1 km radius of RIICO Area.

> Formulation of Private Industrial Park Scheme.

> Formulation of Land Aggregation & Monetization Policy for optimizing usage of Land Resources and formulating Aggregation of Private Land Act to further strengthen the cause.

• Revenue:

> Formulation of Transfer of Industrial Lands Validation Act for resolving operational challenges on Conversion and other issues in Industrial Area transferred to RIICO.

> Providing Deemed Conversion on Online Platform for Investments made in Tourism and Agro-Processing to facilitate Credit availability in these sectors.

• Local Self Government:

> Reduction of One Time Fees from Rs. 50 Per Sq. Mtr. to Rs. 15 Per Sq. Mtr. on Fire Safety Certificate in cases with Building Height upto 15 Meters for a period of 5 years.

• Agriculture:

> Formulation of Agro-Processing Policy 2024 for investment promotion in Agriculture & Horticulture. Special provisions shall be made for Millets (Sri Anna) under the policy.

7. Amnesty:

• Relief to Dealers and Common Man in various departments in the following manner on the deposit of outstanding amount up to 31^st December, 2023 before 31^st December 2024: –

> Energy Amnesty: Exemption on Interest & Penalty in cases related to electricity disconnections.

> Transport Amnesty: Exemption on the Compounding amount cases detected through E-Ravanna.

> Colonization Amnesty: Exemption of Interest on pending installments in cases related to Agricultural Land Allotment.

• Relief under New Amnesty Scheme in case of deposit of outstanding demand before 31^st December, 2024

> VAT Amnesty (Cases related to Acts Repealed in 2017)

(a) Waiver of demands up to Rs 10 Lakh.

(b) Exemption on the outstanding demand on depositing amount from 10-20% of the demand in various categories.

> Mining Amnesty– Exemption on the outstanding demand on depositing amount from 10-30 % of the demand in various categories.

> Stamp Amnesty- 100% Exemption on Interest & Penalty.

> Excise Amnesty-Category wise exemption on outstanding Interest and Tax in cases pending till 31^st March, 2024 .

8. Institutional Strengthening:

• Following measures will be taken in Revenue Earning Department to augment their efficiency-

> Registration & Stamps:

• e-Panjiyan 3.0 Portal for conducting online transactions will be made available for citizens, departmental officials and other stakeholders.
• Automating the process of Reference and other legal procedures on the e-Panjiyan 3.0 Portal.

> Commercial Taxes Department:

• Restructuring of the Commercial Taxes Department in view of the workload and meeting the operational challenges and facilitation of the tax payer.
• Registration of New Firms based on Aadhar based Bio Metric Authentication.

> Transport Department:

• Faceless Management will be introduced in Transport Department for bringing transparency and efficiency in the working of the department.
• Verification of the Vehicle documents will be done through e-Detection System.

> Excise:

• Creation of Integrated Excise Preventive & Enforcement Force.

> Mining:

• Conduct of Process relating to Mining on Online Mode.
• GIS based determination of Mining Block.
• RFID & GPS based tracking of Mineral Transportation.
• Drone based determination of quantity and penalty relating to the excavation.
• Creation of Posts of Revenue Officers for augmenting the efficiency in the Department.