MSME body seeks tax breaks for job creation

The Federation of Indian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (FISME) has sought tax breaks on employment generation on the same lines as those for capital outlays, and tax exemptions for profit ploughed back by small and micro industries into business.

The federation wants a simplification of the rules for refund of excise duty, speedy introduction of goods and services tax (GST), and a review of current anti-dumping duties, because many of them are levied to protect large monopoly domestic producers with “scant regard” for the interests of MSMEs.

The CII favours streamlined policies and procedures for listing on SMEs exchanges, and policy guidelines to encourage FDI participation by NRIs in the SME sector, said Pikender Pal Singh, regional director, CII Northern Region.

CII has also sought an interest subvention of two per cent for MSMEs, and a complete rollback of the levy of 18.5 per cent alternate minimum tax, in order to promote the MSME sector, Singh said.

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) wants the excise exemption limit for MSME to be raised from the existing Rs 1.5 crore, the concessional excise duty of 60 per cent under Cenvat credit to be restored, excise duty on raw materials used by MSMEs to be reduced, Central sales tax to be replaced by GST, and tax breaks to encourage R&D among MSMEs.