The Cochin Chamber of Commerce and Industry had the privilege to be invited by the Finance Ministry to participate in the 9th pre-budget consultation with the industry in preparation for the forthcoming Union Budget 2021-22.

The meeting was chaired by Union Minister for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman. The Chamber was represented by the former President V.Venugopal, who presented recommendations to the panel.

The suggestions focused on income tax, industry, trade, services, health, and education, to aid the Ministry in the decision-making process. These suggested interventions are supplemented with reasons and justifications to enable informed decisions from the Ministry’s side.

Some of the major suggestions include: increasing income tax threshold limits to ₹7.5 lakh; iimplementation of Direct Tax Code reforms; reducing effective corporate tax rate to 20 per cent; corporate tax like concession for MSMEs; setting up Invest India like Business Facilitation Cells in all states in collaboration with industrial associations; petroleum price regulation based on international crude oil prices and GST on petrol; finalisation of New Industrial Policy, National Retail Trade Policy, National Logistics Policy.

The Chamber hoped that the forthcoming Union Budget will usher in a new dawn for the revival of the economy with policies that focus on the ‘Build Back Better’ approach.

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