India Inc on Tuesday sought tax cuts in the forthcoming Budget, even as it asked the government to move towards an effective goods and services tax rate of 15 per cent in the next few years.
Interestingly, corporate chiefs like Venugopal Dhoot of Videocon Industries demanded that the government should provide special incentives to Indian companies acquiring overseas firms.
In the customary pre-Budget meeting with Finance Minister P Chidambaram, leading industrialists including Ratan Tata, Sunil Mittal, Gautam Singhania and Malvinder Singh, among others, put forth a slew of sector specific suggestions.
Industry associations and chambers of commerce also attended the meeting.
The other demands made by industry bodies included increased depreciation rate of 25 per cent per year for tax purposes, removal of the fringe benefit tax on expenditure incurred on sales promotion, and doing away with the anomalies in the Customs and excise duty structure.
