Sitharaman meets leaders of industry, services and trade groups for pre-Budget consultations

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday held the third round of consultations with stakeholder groups from industry, trade and services sectors in connection with the forthcoming General Budget 2020-21.

The main areas of discussion included regulatory environment impacting private investment, measures for promotion of exports amid rising protectionist tendencies, industrial production, logistics, media and entertainment services, and IT and IT-enabled services.

The meeting was attended by Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur, Finance Secretary Rajeev Kumar, Secretary at the Department of Economic Affairs Atanu Chakraborty, Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey, Secretary at the Ministry of Tourism Yogendra Tripathi, Secretary at the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Guruprasad Mohapatra, Secretary at the Department of Commerce Anup Wadhanwan, CBDT Chairman Pramod Chandra Mody, CBIC Chairman P K Das, Chief Economic Advisor K V Subramanian and other senior officials of the Ministry of Finance.

Industry representatives gave several suggestions concerning ease of doing business and called for reduction of compliance burden, reduction of tax litigation, allowing self-certification in low-risk industries, decriminalisation of tax and company laws, reduction of cost of equity capital, simplification and rationalisation with regards to duties and labour laws, adoption of international standards of alternative dispute resolution, export development funds for helping MSME exporters and ease of investment flow into the manufacturing sector.

The industry leaders included CII President Vikram Kirloskar, FICCI President Sandip Somany, ASSOCHAM Secretary General Deepak Sood, President of IMC Chamber of Commerce and Industry Ashish Vaid, President of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry D K Aggarwal, President of Federation of Indian Micro and Small and Medium Enterprises Animesh Saxena and FIEO's Director General and CEO Ajay Sahai.

They were joined by representatives of regional trade associations and export promotion councils.