Union Budget: Industry seeks tax cuts, rationalisation of duties

NEW DELHI: In an effort to boost the economy, representatives of various industries on Tuesday urged finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to reduce the incidence of indirect taxes and rationalise duty structure wherever required.

In a pre-Budget meeting with Sitharaman, FIEO president Ashwani Kumar made a case for an extension of the interest equalisation scheme for the next five years.

"We request the scheme which is valid till 30th June, 2024 may be extended for 5 years. Looking into the rise in interest rates consequent to the increase in repo rate from 4.4% to 6.5% in the last 2 years, the subvention rates may be restored back from 3% to 5% for manufacturers in MSMEs," Kumar said.

Kumar also urged for the establishment of an Indian shipping line of global repute to reduce foreign shipping line dependency and save foreign exchange.

Emerging from the nearly two-hour meeting, Ajay Sardana, president & head of petchem-industry affairs, at Reliance Industries, said there is a need for a review of tariffs on imported goods from China related to the petrochem industry.

"China has created a lot of overcapacity...they are putting a lot of products in India at a very cheaper price and a lot of dumping is happening. So, what we requested is a review of the tariffs regime so that domestic capacity can be increased," Sardana said.

Shree Cement chairman HM Bangur said govt should spend more on capital expenditure so that the cement industry benefits.

"We sought faster and simultaneous environmental clearances and no hindrance in capex," he added.

Representing the services sector, Nasscom vice president and head of public policy Ashish Aggarwal said, "From the Budget perspective, we are looking for easing the transfer pricing regime as a lot of our industry is not able to benefit from transfer pricing provision."