SME Times News Bureau | 02 Jun, 2014
The Federation of
Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has stressed on the new
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley the need for a conducive tax regulatory
environment, the industry chamber said Sunday.
"To support the forward looking development and delivery oriented agenda
of the new government, a non-adversarial, conducive and fair tax regulatory
environment is the need of the hour," a statement here said after a FICCI
delegation called on Jaitley with a pre-budget wish-list.
"The government could ideally declare as policy that retrospective action
shall not be resorted to, save in rarest of cases, but never for creating a
fresh onus or liability for a previous period. In fairness, retrospective
change if needed must invariably favour the taxpayer," FICCI president
Sidharth Birla said.
"We must show that India values and welcomes capital, and supports it by
clear and credible policies," he added.
Citing concerns related to taxation of capital, Birla said: "Provisions
which effectively deem portions of capital to be in the nature of income are
serious deterrents to genuine transactions, while keeping the door open for
aberrant behaviour."
The industry lobby also suggested that changes can be examined in laws, to
aggressively widen tax base, simplify laws and rationalise exemptions.
To promote entrepreneurship, FICCI suggested introducing "start-up rebated
tax (START)" in line with other Asian nations.
The suggestions also included taking possible steps on illegal assets abroad
through the tax net.