Notification No. 103/2023 [F. No. 370142/44/2023-TPL] / GSR 898(E) — Ministry of Finance

What this is

Notification No. 103/2023 [F. No. 370142/44/2023-TPL] / GSR 898(E) was published on 18 December 2023. Its subject is Ministry of Finance.

This amends the Income-tax Rules. What it changes is the Rules, not the Act — and a rule can never take away what the section gives.

What it does

Made under clause (xii) of sub-section (5) of section 11 read with section 295 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, the Income-tax Amendment (Twenty-Eighth Amendment) Rules, 2023 insert a new clause (x) in rule 17C of the Income-tax Rules, 1962. The new clause adds, to the forms and modes of investment permitted for a charitable or religious trust, investment by way of acquiring units of POWERGRID Infrastructure Investment Trust. Rule 17C is the rule that lists the additional modes of investment approved under section 11(5)(xii).

Who it reaches

charitable and religious trusts and institutions investing accumulated funds
trustees and their auditors certifying compliance with section 11(5)
assessing officers examining whether a trust's funds are held in a permitted mode
POWERGRID Infrastructure Investment Trust as a recipient of such investment

The provisions it speaks to

Left, the provision of the Income-tax Act, 1961 as the instrument itself names it. Right, the section of the Income-tax Act, 2025 that the department’s own concordance maps it to — which is where the same ground is now covered.

Under the 1961 Act	Now
s.3	s.3
s.11	s.332, s.333, s.334, s.335, s.337, s.338, s.339, s.340, s.341, s.342, s.344, s.345, s.350, s.355
s.295	s.533

The instrument, as the Board published it

The department publishes this one only as a PDF, so the words below were read out of that PDF by machine. That reading can carry its own mistakes — a misread number, a broken line. Check the signed document before you rely on a figure in it.

MINISTRY OF FINANCE
(Department of Revenue)
(CENTRAL BOARD OF DIRECT TAXES)
NOTIFICATION
New Delhi, the 18th December, 2023
G.S.R. 898(E).—In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (xii) of sub-section (5) of section 11 read with section 295 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961), the Central Board of Direct Taxes hereby makes the following rules further to amend the Income-tax Rules, 1962, namely:─
1. Short title and commencement:-(1) These rules may be called the Income-tax Amendment (Twenty-Eighth Amendment) Rules, 2023.
(2) They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.
2. In the Income-tax Rules, 1962, in rule 17C, after clause (ix), the following clause shall be inserted, namely:-
"(x) investment by way of acquiring units of POWERGRID Infrastructure Investment Trust.".
[Notification No. 103/2023/ F. No. 370142/44/2023-TPL]
SOURABH JAIN, Under Secy.
Note:-Principal rules were published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part-II, Section 3, Sub-section (ii) vide notification number S.O. 969(E), dated the 26th March, 1962 and was last amended vide notification number G.S.R. 813(E), dated 31st October, 2023.
Uploaded by Dte. of Printing at Government of India Press, Ring Road, Mayapuri, New Delhi-110064
and Published by the Controller of Publications, Delhi-110054.

What it changes

The rule numbers are the 1962 Rules’ own, as the notification names them. The right-hand column is the department’s own mapping into the Income-tax Rules, 2026, which renumbered nearly everything.

Rule of the 1962 Rules	Now, in the 2026 Rules
Rule 17C	no counterpart recorded

From when

18 December 2023, the date of publication in the Official Gazette.

What to watch

The rules come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette, so there is no retrospective cover for earlier holdings.
The permission is specific to units of this one infrastructure investment trust; units of other InvITs are not brought in by this amendment.
Investment outside the modes in section 11(5) read with rule 17C jeopardises the exemption under section 11, so the date from which the units were held matters.
The amendment only adds a clause; nothing in rule 17C is omitted or altered.

Where you meet it

In a trust's audit report and its return under section 139(4A), and in any assessment where the assessing officer examines whether accumulated income was held in a mode approved by section 11(5) read with rule 17C.

What it names

Rules it names. Rule 17C of the Income-tax Rules, 1962. The 1962 Rules were replaced by the Income-tax Rules, 2026, which renumbered nearly everything: a rule number quoted here almost never means the same rule today.

On the same provision

Other instruments in this library that name the same provision of the 1961 Act. They are not necessarily still operative, and a later one may have replaced an earlier one without saying so.

Notification No. 94/2026 [F. No. 370142/24/2026-TPL] / G.S.R. 646(E) : Income-tax (Second Amendment) Rules, 2026 : Amendment of rule 157 of the Income tax Rules, 2026 to align the definition of the specified fund with rule 114AAB of the Income tax Rules, 1962 — Ministry of Finance 21 July 2026
Notification No. 64 — [भाग II—खण् ड 3(i)] भारत का रािपत्र : असाधारण 7 16 April 2026
Notification No. 63/2026 [F. No. 370142/13/2026-TPL]/ GSR 268(E) — 2 the Gazette of INDIA : Extraordinary [Part Ii—sec. 3(i)] 10 April 2026
Notification No. 62/2026 [F. No. 370142/10/2026-TPL]/ GSR 267(E) — Ministry of Finance 10 April 2026
Notification No. 61/2026 [F. No. 370142/9/2026-TPL] / GSR 266(E) — [भाग II—खण् ड 3(i)] भारत का रािपत्र : असाधारण 3 10 April 2026
Notification No. 60/2026 [F. No. 370142/8/2026-TPL]/ GSR 265(E) — 2 the Gazette of INDIA : Extraordinary [Part Ii—sec. 3(i)] 10 April 2026

← Notification No. 104/2023 [F. No. 370142/26/2023-TPL] / GSR 900(E) · Notification No. 102/2023 [F. No. 300196/45/2019-ITA-I] / SO 5169(E) →

What a notification is. A notification is made under a power the Act itself gives, and within that power it is law — unlike a circular, which only binds the department. Its reach is the reach of the enabling provision and no wider, and the date it carries decides from when it works.

Source: the Income Tax Department’s own published text — its page for this instrument.