India Inc to pitch for simplified I-T laws with FM

India Inc will ask the government to continue with higher public spending and push reforms and allocations to boost rural consumption and demand, heads of various industry bodies said a day before their pre-Budget meeting with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and his team of policymakers.

"We would like to see the government continue with higher public investment. We would like to see capital investment from the Centre carry on a little longer. There is a rural sector slowdown and hence it needs big investment as well, which would give growth a boost," Sumit Mazumder, president of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), told Business Standard.

Besides CII, industry bodies FICCI and Assocham, too, will meet finance ministry officials for pre-Budget consultations on Wednesday evening. Assocham said in an official statement that it would request the government to keep all services provided for agricultural produce outside service tax ambit. "Services like warehouse management, security, laboratory testing and others that are essential to secure storage of agri-produce should be included in the negative list or in the list of exempted services," said D S Rawat, secretary-general of Assocham.

Assocham also demanded service tax exemption for leasing of land and agricultural equipment; agri-extension services provided in rural areas; and marketing of agricultural products. "The government should partner with the private sector for developing market infrastructure in rural areas by providing appropriate incentives and exemption from service tax in respect of input services that are used for strengthening infrastructure in rural markets," said Rawat. The Narendra Modi government is looking to boost rural consumption and alleviate distress in the hinterland, and might give an allocation push in Budget 2016-17 to programmes on irrigation infra and rural roads.

A BIG ASK

• CII is likely to demand lowering of corporate tax rate to near 20%
   
• Assocham is likely to pitch for addressing policy gaps in existing provisions and enacting specific provisions to deal with key issues