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Case lawIncome-tax Act 2025Chapter VIII › Section 143
Chapter VIIIwas s.80

Section 143 of the Income-tax Act, 2025

Section 143 — Special provisions in respect of certain undertakings in North-Eastern States. Successor to s.80 of the 1961 Act.

Where this section sits

Section 143 is in Chapter VIII — Deductions to Be Made in Computing Total Income, which runs from section 122 to section 154.

← Section 142  ·  Section 144 →

What this section does

Sub-section (1) is the allowance: where the gross total income of an assessee includes profits and gains derived by an undertaking to which the section applies from a business referred to in sub-section (2), a deduction of an amount equal to 100% of those profits and gains is allowed for ten consecutive tax years commencing with the initial tax year.

Sub-section (2) fixes the class of undertaking by reference to a closed window: the undertaking must, during the period beginning 1 April 2007 and ending before 1 April 2017, have begun or begin, in any of the North-Eastern States, to manufacture or produce an eligible article or thing, to undertake substantial expansion to do so, or to carry on an eligible business. Sub-section (3) adds two negative conditions — the undertaking must not be formed by splitting up or reconstruction of an existing business (other than one re-established, reconstructed or revived under section 140(4) in the circumstances and within the period specified there), and must not be formed by transfer to a new business of previously used machinery or plant. Sub-section (4) applies section 140(5) and (6) to that second condition.

Sub-section (5) bars any other deduction under Chapter VIII in relation to the profits and gains of the undertaking. Sub-section (6) caps the total period of deduction, inclusive of any period of deduction under this section or under the second proviso to section 80-ib(4) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, at ten tax years. Sub-section (7) applies section 140(7) to (15) to an eligible undertaking so far as may be.

Sub-section (8) defines the terms. An "eligible article or thing" is anything other than tobacco and manufactured tobacco substitutes under Chapter 24, pan masala under Chapter 21, plastic carry bags of less than twenty microns as specified in the two notifications named, and Chapter 27 goods produced by petroleum oil or gas refineries. "Eligible business" is a closed list of eight — a hotel not below two star category, adventure and leisure sports including ropeways, medical and health services in the nature of a nursing home with a minimum capacity of twenty-five beds, an old-age home, a vocational training institute in the named fields, an information technology related training centre, manufacture of information technology hardware, and bio-technology. The "initial tax year" is the year in which the undertaking begins to manufacture or produce, or completes substantial expansion. The "North-Eastern States" are Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. "Substantial expansion" means an increase in investment in plant and machinery of at least 25% of the book value of plant and machinery, before taking depreciation in any year, as on the first day of the tax year in which the expansion is undertaken.

Why it is there

The deduction was an incentive to put manufacturing and a defined set of service businesses into the eight North-Eastern States within a fixed decade. The conditions in sub-section (3) exist so the incentive buys new capacity rather than a relabelled existing business, and sub-sections (5) and (6) prevent the same profits attracting a second Chapter VIII deduction or a period longer than ten years when combined with the corresponding relief already claimed under the 1961 Act.

Who it applies to

The figures, and what each one turns on

Read the condition in the same row. A figure quoted without it is a wrong answer with a citation attached.
WhatFigureThe condition on itWhere
Rate of deduction100% of the profits and gains derived from the businessWhere gross total income includes profits derived by an undertaking to which the section applies from a business referred to in sub-section (2)Sub-section (1)
Period of deductionTen consecutive tax yearsCommencing with the initial tax year, being the year the undertaking begins to manufacture or produce or completes substantial expansionSub-section (1) with sub-section (8)(c)
Window for beginning the activityOn or after 1 April 2007 and before 1 April 2017The undertaking must have begun or begin manufacture or production, substantial expansion, or an eligible business in a North-Eastern State in that periodSub-section (2)
Outer cap on the total period of deductionTen tax yearsInclusive of the period of deduction under this section and under the second proviso to section 80-ib(4) of the Income-tax Act, 1961Sub-section (6)
Threshold for substantial expansionAt least 25% of the book value of plant and machineryBook value before taking depreciation in any year, as on the first day of the tax year in which the substantial expansion is undertakenSub-section (8)(e)
Minimum standard for a hotel as an eligible businessNot below two star categoryBusiness of hotelSub-section (8)(b)(i)
Minimum capacity for a nursing home as an eligible businessTwenty-five bedsProviding medical and health services in the nature of a nursing homeSub-section (8)(b)(iii)
Thickness below which plastic carry bags are not an eligible article or thingLess than twenty micronsAs specified by the Ministry of Environment and Forests in notifications S.O. 705(E) dated 2 September 1999 and S.O. 698(E) dated 17 June 2003Sub-section (8)(a)(iii)

What this means in practice

The entry window closed before 1 April 2017, so nothing new can qualify; what the section still does is run out the ten-year period for undertakings that entered in time, and sub-section (6) counts any years already taken under the second proviso to section 80-ib(4) of the 1961 Act towards that same ten. Substantial expansion is a separate route in and it resets the initial tax year under sub-section (8)(c), but only if the investment in plant and machinery rises by at least 25% of book value before depreciation as on the first day of that year. Sub-section (5) is absolute — profits that get this deduction get no other deduction under Chapter VIII — and the negative conditions in sub-section (3), read with section 140(5) and (6) through sub-section (4), are where claims most often fail, because moving used plant into the new undertaking disqualifies it.

An example

Illustrative only, and invented for this page. The figures are chosen to show the rule biting, not taken from any real matter.

A company sets up an undertaking in Meghalaya that begins manufacturing an eligible article in the tax year 2016-17, within the sub-section (2) window, with no used plant transferred to it and no splitting up of an existing business. That year is the initial tax year, and 100% of the profits derived from that business are deducted for ten consecutive tax years. If the company had already claimed the corresponding deduction for four years under the second proviso to section 80-ib(4) of the 1961 Act for the same undertaking, sub-section (6) allows only six further years here, since the total inclusive period cannot exceed ten tax years.

Where you meet this section

You meet it in the Chapter VIII deduction schedule of the return and in the accompanying claim for the undertaking's profits, and in an assessment order testing whether the undertaking was formed by splitting up or by transfer of used plant, or whether the ten-year inclusive cap in sub-section (6) has been exhausted.

The words themselves

a deduction of an amount equal to 100% of the profits and gains derived from such business for ten consecutive tax years commencing with the initial tax year
Section 143(1), Income-tax Act, 2025.
during the period beginning on the 1st April, 2007 and ending before the 1st April, 2017, has begun or begins, in any of the North-Eastern States
Section 143(2), Income-tax Act, 2025.
"substantial expansion" means increase in the investment in the plant and machinery by at least 25% of the book value of plant and machinery (before taking depreciation in any year), as on the first day of the tax year in which the substantial expansion is undertaken
Section 143(8)(e), Income-tax Act, 2025.

What people get wrong

What this replaced

The correspondence is the Income Tax Department’s own, from its comparison utility for the 1961 and 2025 Acts. A renumbering is the easy half; whether the words changed is the half that decides cases.

See the full 1961 to 2025 concordance.

Rules that serve this section

Rules of the Income-tax Rules, 2026 that work section 143. Where the rule’s own heading names the section we say so; the rest are marked on reading the rule, which is our derivation and not the department’s. A rule that serves the section silently and that we have missed will not appear here.

All of them are in the Rules 2026 index.

Circulars of the Board on this section

A circular binds the department, not you and not a court. Every one below was written under the 1961 Act; it reaches this section because the department’s own concordance carries the provision it names to this one.

See every circular and notification on this section, or the circulars index.

Notifications that reach this section

A notification is made under a power the Act gives and, within that power, is law. These too were made under the 1961 Act and are placed here by the department’s concordance.

See every circular and notification on this section, or the notifications index.

Case law carried across

Read this before you rely on it. Every decision below was decided under the Income-tax Act, 1961. It appears here because it is tagged to a 1961 provision that the department’s own mapping carries to section 143. That is an inference we have drawn, not a holding on the new section: where the words changed in the move, the reasoning may not survive. Treat this as the place to start looking, not as authority on the 2025 Act.

Explainers

Read with

What this page does not tell you. It does not reproduce the section. Everything above was written from the section’s own text as the Income Tax Department publishes it — the text is here, and nothing here is advice on your facts. Where a figure matters, read the sub-section it comes from.