Last year, the government had extended the reduced corporate tax rate of 25 per cent to companies with turnover of up to Rs 250 crore in his speech presenting Budget 2018-19 in Lok Sabha. The then FM had claimed 99% of the companies filing their tax returns belonged to the Rs 250 crore turnover bracket.
To boost domestic manufacturing, Jaitley had announced customs duty hike on mobiles to 20 per cent from 15 per cent. Duty on TVs hiked to 15 per cent.
"Towards fulfilment of my promise to reduce corporate tax in a phased manner, I now propose to extend benefit of reduced corporate tax rate of 25% to companies which have reported turnover of up to Rs 250 crore in financial year 2016-17,"Jaitley had said.
The government had reduced the corporate tax to 25% from 30% in the Union Budget of 2017-18 for companies with a turnover of Rs 50 crore in the financial year 2015-16.