Arun Jaitley to present Union Budget tomorrow, Indian companies hopeful

The Bengal Chamber expects  the Union Finance Minister to reduce corporate tax structure  to 28 per cent from the existing 30 per cent.

"Significant public capital investment in infrastructure in the areas of pre and post harvest technologies leading to faster growth in agriculture. In addition, this is expected to generate lot of employment and value creation," the Chamber said in a statement where it spokes on its expectations.

"Provide directions to incentivise stronger linkages of FDI with Value Chains," it said.

Rita Singh, CMD, Mesco Steel said she expects to see reduction of import duty on coking coal.

"The removal of import duty would help in reducing the cost of producing the end product and would help to increase the profitability of steel companies, which would in turn benefit the industry as well as economy as a whole.  Indian steel companies are also requesting for exemption from Environmental Cess," Singh said.

Speaking on import duty on stainsteel scrap, Singh said: "For the manufacturing of stainless steel in electric furnace, stainless steel scrap is the key raw material. This scrap is not available in India and has to be imported and hence Customs duty on import of scrap may be reduced to NIL from current duty of 2.5%."

On export duty on Iron ore, Singh said: " At present there is no export duty on Iron ore with 58% Fe (ferrous content), we suggest to reduce the export duty on 62% Fe."

Waman Parkhi, Partner, Indirect Tax, KPMG in India said: "GST rates of passenger vehicles to be rationalized from the current multiple tax rate structure. Tax on used cars to be fixed on differential value between sale and purchase price."

Expecting a Sweet Pill - Santosh Dalvi, Partner, Indirect Tax, KPMG in India, "

For last few years the hype and expectations from Union budget has reduced considerably. Though the exercise on providing wish list and hoping that some changes go through continues. The year 2017 has been an eventful year considering GST implementation wef 1 July 2017. Pharma sector had a significant impact, key being increase in effective tax rate from 9.5% to 12%, transition challenges on account of reduced availability of credit to channel partners on old taxes and passing through the maze of compliances."

"Both Central and state Government through GST council have been extremely receptive to the challenges faced by Industry and issued various clarifications/ notifications to reduce the pain points. However, there are various issues which are still unresolved and the sector is hoping that same would get addressed in the upcoming budget," Santosh Dalvi said.

"Some of the key areas which Pharma companies are expecting from Budget 2018-19 includes no GST impact/ credit reversal for expired / damaged medicines. As per the GST provision, credit needs to be reversed if goods are written off or disposed without any consideration this has created significant impact as pharma companies have regular disposal of expired/ damaged goods," Dalvi said.

"Further, the credit restrictions on various items such as free supply, promotion material, employee related expenses should be done away with and full credit should be allowed for all business related expenses.

In addition one issue which has remained unresolved for long time is place of supply of testing services, at present the same is based on location of service provider. Due to this Indian Companies are not able to provide such services globally as their consideration attracts 18% GST making them uncompetitive in global market. The said services should be linked to service recipient so that same can be treated as export of services liable to zero rate GST," he said.

Speaking on petroleum sector, Nabin Ballodia, Partner, Tax, Infrastructure, Government, & Healthcare, KPMG in India, said: "

In the last couple of years, the Government has made conscious efforts to provide an attractive investment option in the India oil & gas space. The Open Acreage License Policy (OALP) and the market linked petrol & diesel pricing by has changed the outlook for the sector considerably."

"However, one of the aspects that concerns the oil sector is the exclusion of crude & natural gas from the newly inserted Goods & Service Tax (GST) net. Crude and Natural gas being outside the GST - the old tax regime continues to be applicable to the output of oil companies whereas all input costs are liable to the New GST.

"The input GST is not available as a credit against the output tax liability under the old regime resulting in substantial cost escalation for the oil & gas sector. The incremental cost to the oil companies gets passed on to the end consumers as a part of the cost. Hence, the oil & gas sector would be looking up to the Finance Minister for a roadmap to include natural gas & crude oil into the GST net," he said.

Laxman Jaiswal, Chairman & Managing Director, Ascon Infrastructure (India) Ltd, said: "The annual Union Budget gives the Government an opportunity to steer and tweak the direction of the National economy. This year is no different, the current Government has done a lot for the Indian real estate industry, even when it was in the form of hard decisions like demonetization and the disruptive but very necessary RERA. With harsh decisions absorbed the Indian real estate sector expects some benevolence implied in a populist budget. This benevolence needs to go beyond improving personal finances and the implied boost to real estate investment appetite. 2017 was a year of transformation for the real estate sector. RERA, GST, affordable housing look set to change the entire landscape of the sector. RERA shall result in more information at the public domain and GST shall simplify the pricing structure and tax regime for the sector. Affordable housing shall further demand in the mid income housing."