Industry leaders call for investment and higher spending in pre-Budget talks

NEW DELHI: Industry leaders on Monday called for measures to boost investment, education and healthcare during pre-budget talks with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Key proposals include measures to stimulate MSMEs and domestic consumption to foster job creation, India’s integration into global value chains, and a win-win relationship for taxpayers and the government. These include expanding estimated taxes on emerging sectors such as data centers and cloud computing.

The discussions come ahead of the Union Budget to be tabled on February 1, 2025, and come at a critical time for India’s economy, which faces slowing growth and geopolitical challenges to trade. The discussion was attended by representatives from the health, education and manufacturing sectors.

Industry body CII is committed to creating jobs, integrating India into global value chains, continuing focus on capital investment and fiscal consolidation, increasing central government revenue through divestment, and improving National Monetization Pipeline (NMP) 2.0. It proposed that the government address seven priorities through policy instruments, including the For the period from 2026 to 2030, measures will be taken to increase consumption, rationalize subsidies, and deal with abnormal weather.

Reforms that bring out potential

“Based on the remarkable success of manufacturing in certain sectors, similar targeted interventions should be made in sectors with large employment potential, such as ready-made clothing, footwear, furniture, tourism, real estate and construction. For example, the status of infrastructure for tourism and PLI. In addition to RMG 2.0, faster FTAs ​​with countries such as the EU and the UK, and lower import tariffs on raw materials such as cotton, next-generation reforms, especially labor reforms, will go a long way. It will unlock the potential of the aggregation sector,” said Sanjiv Puri, Chairman, CII, who attended the meeting.

He said CII’s recommendations to the government to boost consumption include lowering fuel excise taxes to curb overall inflation and boost disposable income, and lowering marginal tax rates on personal income to a maximum. It added that it was included. INR2 million rupees annually to trigger a virtuous cycle of consumption, high growth and increased tax revenue, and increase in minimum wage rates under MGNREGS. INR24th fiscal year – 267 cases per day INR375 per day, as proposed by the Expert Committee on the Determination of the National Minimum Wage.

The discussions with industry bodies included Sanjiv Puri of CII, Sanjay Nayar of Assocham, Vijay Sankar of FICCI, Neeraj Akhoury, president of Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA), Bhavna Doshi of IMG Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dr Reddy’s Satish Reddy, Chairman of Labrotaries Ltd, and Chanakya Chaudhary participated. Raj Kumar Gupta of Tata Steel, Raj Kumar Gupta of CIFI, Shraddha Sri Marwa of ACMA and Secretary General of Vishva Hindu Parishad Bajrang Bagla.

Many measures required

ASSOCHAM, in its pre-Budget meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, announced a number of measures to boost investment, including increasing the ambit of presumptive tax on MSMEs and new-age businesses such as data centres, data hosting and cloud computing. Measures were sought. Assocham chairman Sanjay Nayar said it was a win-win situation for both taxpayers and the government.

“This will help simplify compliance for these taxpayers by calculating income based on pre-determined criteria, thereby reducing the fear of tax disputes and litigation. By avoiding complex audits and bookkeeping while knowing their tax obligations up front, businesses can: “Improve financial planning and management,” he added. Ta.

Meanwhile, representatives from the health sector who met the finance minister on Monday included Tata Memorial Center director Kailash Sharma, public health expert Atul Kotwal, National Examinations Board chairman Abhijat Seth; They included Professor Hari Menon of St. John’s University. National Academy of Health Sciences.

Representatives from the education sector who met with Sitharaman and Treasury officials on Monday included Raj Nehru, vice-chancellor of Sri Vishwakarma Skills University, and Ramya Ven, founder and CEO of CENTA. Mr. Kataraman, Akhil Barte Geeta Bhatt, General Secretary of Aiya Rashtriya Shaikshik Mahasangh (ABRSM), Ashish Chauhan (ABVP National Organizing Secretary) and Vinny Jauhari (Worldwide Director) Microsoft Public Sector Education.

The real GDP growth rate in the September quarter fell to 5.4%, the lowest level in nearly two years, due to slowdowns in manufacturing and urban consumption and sluggish corporate profits.