Adhia backs decision to leave corporate tax untouched

Following the Centre's decision to levy 25 percent corporate tax for companies with Rs. 250 crore turnover, Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia on Thursday while backing this said the decision has been made keeping the welfare of the common man in mind.

"The corporate tax reduction was a difficult subject for us to handle. However, tax rate reduced would mean Rs 60,000cr loss for us. We cannot let such sums of money go into big shareholders, as we need to focus on the welfare of the poor, and we stay firm on this," Adhia told ANI.

In terms of unchanged personal income tax, Adhia said the Rs 40,000 tax rebate offered to salaried employees will largely benefit honest taxpayers.

Earlier in the day, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley proposed to cut the corporate income tax rate to 25 percent for companies with a turnover of up to Rs. 250 crore.

While presenting the Budget speech, the minister said the tweak will result in 7,000 companies coming under the 25 percent tax slabs.

Meanwhile, Adhia, while speaking of the benefits bestowed upon the agriculture sector, said the rural economy will largely benefit from the measures.

"With the minimum support price increased, commodities will not get expensive. It is the middlemen who consume profits, and therefore, common man will not be affected. We want farmers to get procurement allowance as well," he said.

In terms of the newly-announced healthcare expansion plan, Adhia said certain empanelled hospitals have been given the names of the beneficiaries under the National Health Protection Scheme, who can approach these hospitals with their Aadhaar card to avail secondary or tertiary illness treatment.

He further noted that this scheme may be expanded in the days to come.