Tax issues on top of India business leaders’ concerns

Here is the budget wish list of some business leaders across different sectors in India.

The budget wish list of some business leaders across different sectors in India:

Property

Surendra Hiranandani, the chairman and managing director of developer House of Hiranandani

“We hope the government provides tax incentives for first-time home buyers. The government must allocate an amount exclusively for developing infrastructure and improving connectivity in the peripheral areas of cities, especially the metros. We expect this year’s budget to focus upon improving infrastructure in the country in order to bring smaller regions into the limelight. We hope to get clarity on the final rate of GST that will be applied to the real estate sector.”

Agriculture

Kaushal Dugar, the founder and chief executive of tea brand Teabox

“The government should give benefits to agriculture-based start-ups by means of reduction in the fuel surcharge, relaxation in export duty, decreasing taxes for interstate transportation. Benefits like reduction in taxes, or any other charges, help in investments for innovation and should be given for promoting Indian based agri products. Also, as the government of India is moving more towards cashless transactions, service charges should be abolished for digital transactions.”

Travel and Tourism

Tarun Gulati, the co-founder of travel IT company Djubo

“We are hoping to see relaxation in the service tax and luxury taxes because travel has been hit due to demonetisation, so there should be steps to reduce the burden on the wallets of travellers. We are also hoping to see cheaper financing available to hospitality businesses because new room supply is slowing down because of a liquidity crunch. The government is announcing interest rate sops for housing but not enough for hotels. Tourism employs a huge percentage of India’s population.”

Solar Energy

Sanjeev Saini, a director at power solutions firm Su-Kam

“From this budget, the solar power industry expects that the government should provide benefits in such a way that we can achieve India’s target of 40 gigawatts of rooftop solar by the end of 2022. The solar energy sector should be given priority lending status. The government should also work towards providing more benefits to the individual customers and end users in terms of tax rebate and so on, to encourage them to switch to solar power back-up systems.”

Healthcare

Amol Naikawadi, the joint managing director of healthcare provider Indus Health Plus

“The way healthcare services are enjoying exemptions in service tax [the] same should continue in the proposed GST. Since the tax rate is expected in the range of 18 per cent, it will hugely impact the cost of health care of the common man. We propose that preventive health care should either be not taxed or continue the same exemption at a lowest rate. Infrastructure status for the healthcare industry is a long pending demand and should be given priority by the government in the new budget.”

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