The proactive initiatives listed out in the Union Budget for 2015-16 would stimulate the demand for locally-made products giving a shot in the arm to the ‘Make in India’ campaign, CII Vizag zone chairman Neeraj Sarda said on Saturday.
Slashing corporate tax by five per cent, abolition of wealth tax, putting GARR on hold by two years, rationalisation of taxation and fast-track clearances to industries would send the positive signals to the investors’ community, he told The Hindu in an interview. With confidence expressed to raise GDP rate to eight per cent plus next fiscal and achieve double digit in a few years would make India one of the fastest growing economies ahead of China, he said.
Mr. Sarda, Director Sarda Metals & Alloys Ltd, said the announcement to allocate 62 per cent of receipts to the States would promote true cooperative federalism, especially for Andhra Pradesh, which had a lot of plans to emerge most advanced State.
Minimum Alternate Tax had remained untouched while reducing corporate tax from 30 to 25 per cent and allocation of huge outlay for agriculture would ensure balanced development.
“Wealth tax yield has remained very low at Rs.1,000 crore,” he said. Introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) would break tax barriers and ensure uniform tax regime in all States. FDI investments would flow into the country due to certain positive signals sent by the Finance Minister. Measures announced to recover black money and promote cashless transactions would help improve the government revenues.
“We strongly feel that there should have been some relief on MAT front for SEZ units, particularly pharma industries,” he said underlining the need to go ahead with changes proposed in the Land Acquisition Act to ensure hassle-free acquisition of land for industries.
