Corporate tax reduction to begin from next Budget: Jaitley

The government in the next few days will come out with a list of exemptions that would go as part of the plan to gradually reduce corporate tax to 25 per cent, the first tranche of which will be announced in the Budget in February, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today.
The Minister also said the government has been able to resolve a host of tax issues and expressed confidence that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) would be rolled out soon.
Participating in an interactive session at the 'National Strategy Day in India' organised by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Jaitley said the signs of growth are visible and promised to carry out legislative reforms by bringing in a bankruptcy law and modifying the Specific Relief Act.

"I have announced a road map for direct taxation... (to) bring corporate tax down to 25 per cent by phasing out some of those exemptions. We are going to put in the public domain in the next few days some of those exemptions that we intend to phase out in the first round.
"The first tranche of reduction of corporate tax... I hope to do it in the near future whenever the new Finance Bill comes up," the Minister said.
Jaitley, in his last Budget in February, had announced the government's intention to reduce corporate tax to 25 per cent from 30 per cent over the next four years. The Minister will be presenting the next Budget in February 2016.

He also said the government has been able to address various tax legacy issues, including those pertaining to retrospective tax amendment, though two-three problems remain.
"Systematically, one by one, we have been resolving (taxation issues)... That fear of retrospective taxation has gone. Two-three of those problems remain and they remain because of legal reasons. I have publicly announced that we are looking for processes by which we can resolve some of these," Jaitley said.