India Inc Tuesday made a case for reduction in corporate tax rate, abolition of minimum alternate tax, halving dividend distribution tax to 10 per cent and increase in outlay for infrastructure sector in the upcoming Budget with a view to arrest economic slowdown.
Representatives of industry chambers made these suggestions during their customary pre-budget consultation with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who on her part, recalled the steps taken by the government since 2014 to improve the country’s business climate. Sitharaman will present the first Budget of the Modi 2.0 government on July 5.
In the meeting, CII President Vikram Kirloskar suggested bringing down the dividend distribution tax to 10 per cent from the present 20 per cent, saying it should also be not taxed at the hands of the investor.
In her opening remarks, Sitharaman said since 2014 the government has taken measures to simplify and rationalise existing rules and introduced Information Technology in a big way to make governance more efficient and effective.
As a result, she added, India has considerably improved its ranking to 77th position among the 190 countries and has kept 23 ranks over its rank of 100 in the Doing Business Report 2018 as per the World Bank Doing Business Report, 2019.
Sitharaman also said that industry should accommodate more work force to reap the benefits of demographic dividend.
Among other things, Assocham President B K Goenka recommended that 100 per cent depreciation should be permitted in the first year of investment for all new investments.
“In order to further simplify GST, we propose a dual rate (8% & 16%) structure for GST’,” Goenka said.