The thrust given to rural and infrastructure sectors will have a multiplier effect on the economy but the budget has not met expectations on the corporate taxation front, India Inc said on Monday.
“The union budget continues to rightly focus on rural and infrastructure sector. The planned investment in these two critical sectors will not only create jobs but also give impetus to demand generation and economic growth,” Walmart India president and CEO Krish Iyer said.
However, Ficci president Harshvardhan Neotia said, “Corporate tax rate reduction was something that we were looking at ... a clearer roadmap on how it is going forward. Going forward, we expect some clarity on how the exemptions will be eased out.”
“There was a lot of debate when Finance Minister Arun Jaitley talked about reducing it (corporate tax) to 25 per cent. I don’t believe anything has been done on that but he has got a four-year window for it,” CII president Sumit Mazumder said.
Assocham president Sunil Kanoria said rationalisation and simplification of tax rates would have benefitted the overall ease of doing business, especially keeping in mind that GST implementation seems to have been pushed ahead.
Recalling his last year’s promise of reducing corporate tax from 30 to 25 per cent over a period accompanied by rationalisation and removal of exemptions and incentives, Mr. Jaitley on Monday limited accelerated depreciation provided under I-T Act to a maximum of 40 per cent from April 1, 2017.
“Overall, I would say (the budget is) pretty good,” Bajaj Auto Limited chairman Rahul Bajaj said.
PHD Chamber president Mahesh Gupta said the budget’s focus on rural India would go a long way to generate demand in the economy and give a push to overall growth and development of the country.
