Ease of Doing Business and Make in India are the two pillars running through all Budget proposals, said Mr Ram Tirath, Member (Budget), Central Board of Excise & Customs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. MrTirath was addressing the audience at the Post Budget Interactive session with the Ministry of Finance organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry in Delhi.
He further reiterated that a number of small procedures have been eliminated in the Budget, which were so far resulting in increased cost of compliance to the Industry, while not resulting in major revenue generation for the Government. The ease of paying taxes has been enhanced, procedures cut down drastically and the Cenvat Credit Rules have been simplified and rationalised. These steps are expected to make it easier for the industry to concentrate on business and thereby generate more revenue in the long run.
In the past one year, the Government has addressed a number of areas which are prone to litigation, and issued clarifications and circulars wherever needed. The Dispute Resolution mechanism has been simplified and rationalised to a large extent, which will bring down the cost of administration to the Government, and the cost of compliance to industry, stressed Mr Tirath.
While welcoming the audience to the session, Mr Rajiv Memani, Chairman, CII National Committee on Taxation and Chairman – India Region, EY appreciated the Government for delivering a conservative and balanced Budget in times of global volatility.
“The Budget, with its prime focus on rural development, is the need of the hour, not only for the social fabric of the country, but also from a business standpoint”, said Mr Memani.
Mr Memani further applauded the Central Board for Direct Taxes as well as the Central Board of Excise and Customs for coming out with a large number of circulars and clarifications, during the last six months, which go a long way in simplifying taxes and reducing litigation. There have also been clarifications in the entire refund process, which have not happened before in recent times.
While Mr Memani appreciated the Government for accepting a lot of suggestions of the Justice R V Easwar Committee Report in the Budget, and laying down the road map for phasing out of incentives, Mr Memanisuggested that the road map for reduction in the Corporate tax rates also needs to be identified in advance, so that industry can plan its activities accordingly.
The Interactive session was also addressed by Mr V Anandarajan, Joint Secretary, TPL-II, CBDT, Mr Alok Shukla and Mr Amitabh Kumar, Joint Secretary, TRU, CBEC in the Technical session, where a number of queries raised by the audience were addressed by Ministry officials.