He said that there is need to give directional thrust to translate the same into better results. The Finance Minister was speaking here while interacting with the captains of Indian Trade and Industry as part of his Pre-Budget Consultation meetings.

Along with the Finance Minister, the meeting was attended by Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Ratan P Watal, Expenditure Secretary, Rajiv Takru, Revenue Secretary, GS Sandhu, Secretary, Financial Services, Amitabh Kant, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) and senior officers of the Ministry of Finance among others.

Various suggestions were received from the representatives of different Industry and Trade Groups. Major suggestions include that the Government to follow the path of fiscal consolidation, curbing inflation especially food inflation, push GST, deferment of GARR for at least next three years, no retrospective amendments in tax laws henceforth as it hurts business sentiments in general and discourages foreign investment in particular. Suggestions were made to follow 3 Cs-- Credibility of policy, Continuity of decisions and Clarity of legislation among others.

Other suggestions include transparency and clarity in tax laws especially those relating to transfer pricing, encouraging foreign subsidiaries of Indian companies to bring back the money by exempting dividend from MAT; no MAT on exempted income such as long term capital gains etc. among others.

Other suggestions include productive use of subsidies, exemption/rebate to new industry, banks recapitalization through capital market, abolition of service tax on tourism activities to boost tourism, reduction in MAT, single assessment instead of multiple assessments for same period by tax authorities, revision of reservation list of items reserved exclusively for manufacture in MSME Sector, discourage import of items produced by low cost machineries through effective taxation policy, monitoring of items relating to MSME Sector, imported from neighbouring countries under SAFTA and stringent action to discourage the same.

Other suggestions include removal of 2% duty on bicycle which is highly eco friendly and fixing of floor prices in case of imported bicycles, imposition of import duty on bicycle and its parts not less than 40% to arrest cheap imports and introduction of a ‘Technological Upgradation Fund Scheme’ to help bicycle industry in the country.

Promotion of women enterprises in the country which is at present about 4% only and therefore, women enterprises particularly in MSME Sector be given exemption from taxes atleast for two years also
other suggestions which are included. Another suggestion was made since MGNREGA is affecting the industries and therefore, be reserved for elderly people and women as they can’t migrate whereas youth should be given skill development training in the industries.