Notification No. 136/2025 — Income tax twenty fourth…

What this is

Notification No. 136/2025 [F. No. 370142/29/2025-TPL] / G.S.R 566(E) was published on 21 August 2025. 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

The Central Board of Direct Taxes makes the Income-tax (Twenty-Fourth Amendment) Rules, 2025 under section 295 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, amending rule 21AIA of the Income-tax Rules, 1962. Sub-rule (4) of that rule is omitted, and the Explanation to the rule is substituted by one providing that "specified fund" carries the meaning assigned to it in sub-clause (i) of clause (c) of the Explanation to clause (4D) of section 10 of the Act.

Who it reaches

Specified funds within section 10(4D)
Fund managers and trustees applying rule 21AIA
Tax advisers computing exempt income of such funds
Assessing Officers examining rule 21AIA claims

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.10	s.11, s.19
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 21st August, 2025
INCOME-TAX
G.S.R. 566(E).— In exercise of the powers conferred by 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. (1) These rules may be called the Income-tax (Twenty-Fourth Amendment) Rules, 2025.
(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 21AIA, –
(a) sub-rule (4) shall be omitted;
(b) for the Explanation, the following Explanation shall be substituted, namely:—
"Explanation.—For the purpose of this rule, the expression "specified fund" shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in sub-clause (i) of clause (c) of the Explanation to clause (4D) of section 10 of the Act.".
[Notification No. 136/2025/F. No. 370142/29/2025-TPL]
ROHIT SINGH, Under Secy., Tax Policy and Legislation
Note: The Income-tax Rules, 1962 was published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, section 3, sub-section (ii) vide number S.O. 969 (E), dated the 26th March, 1962 and was last amended vide notification number G.S.R. 564(E), dated the 20th August, 2025.
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 21AIA	rule 144

From when

21 August 2025.

What to watch

The rules come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette, 21 August 2025; they are not retrospective.
Sub-rule (4) of rule 21AIA stands omitted, so whatever it required no longer applies from that date.
The definition of specified fund is now tied to sub-clause (i) of clause (c) of the Explanation to section 10(4D), narrowing it to that sub-clause alone.
The note records the last previous amendment as G.S.R. 564(E) dated 20 August 2025.

Where you meet it

In the exempt income computation and supporting statements of a specified fund, and in any enquiry on the conditions in rule 21AIA.

What it names

Rules it names. Rule 21AIA 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. 137/2025 [F. No. 300195/25/2024-ITA-I] / S.O. 3838(E) · Notification No. 135/2025 [F. No. 370142/33/2025-TPL] / GSR 564(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.