Desist from pressing panic button over drought: FM
FM said the govt is trying to arrive at a consensus on GST at the level of the states, some of which are governed by opposition parties, so that the consensus at the national level percolates to the states and it is implemented by April, 2010.
Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, on Thursday assured captains of trade and industry that the large borrowing programme of the government will not crowd out private investment even as he made a fervent appeal to desist from pressing the panic button over drought, stating that “in view of the revival of confidence amongst corporates and the improvement in the international economic situation, a return to a 8 per cent plus GDP growth rate was within the realm of possibility in the medium term.”
Addressing senior industrialists, tax experts and CFOs at the FICCI Executive Committee meeting in New Delhi yesterday, Mukherjee sought to allay the apprehensions of industry over the perceived adverse effects of the proposed Direct Tax Code, stating.
He said, “ The rates of taxation set out in the Code were illustrative and not actual. The actual rates will be determined and have to be ratified by Parliament.” The illustrative rates have been given out for information and informed discussion and “the Direct Tax Code Bill will be introduced in Parliament in the winter session after receiving the inputs from all stakeholders for implementation from 2011.”
The Finance Minister said, although the deficient rainfall of 26 per cent this year is likely to result in 15-20 per cent shortfall in kharif production, with 252 districts in 10 states being declared as drought-affected, the government was seized of the problem and would tackle the situation through its buffer stock and strategic reserves of food grains.
On industry’s concern over the implementation of GST on the targeted date of April 1, 1010, theFinance Minister said, “We are trying to arrive at a consensus at the level of the states, some of which are governed by opposition parties, so that the consensus at the national level on GST percolates to the states and we are able to stick to the April 2010 date,” he pointed out.
Harsh Pati Singhania, President, FICCI, pointed out that the Direct Tax Code proposes to withdraw exemptions given for long-term capital gains on listed securities and concessional rate of tax on short term capital gains. This may have adverse impact on investment in capital market.
He said, the code has differentiated between business capital asset and investment asset. It has been further proposed that transactions relating to the latter (investment assets) only will enjoy capital gains tax exemption. This may make M&A negotiations quite complex and time consuming.
Login
 Login through Social ID
|
