Lobbying up as Budget draws near

RUN-UP TO BUDGET 2005

Leading industry associations have in the past fortnight visited the finance ministry as many as six to seven times to push for their demands in the run up to the Budget, 2005-06. Their returns: assurances on tax rationalisation from Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

The three apex chambers "" Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) "" have also made detailed presentations to Revenue Secretary KN Chandrashekhar and Commerce Secretary SN Menon.

Parathasarathy Shome, adviser to finance minister, was the other official targetted by the associations.

Although the associations had sent their detailed pre-Budget memoranda to the finance ministry, officials said Chidambaram had asked for a short paper on recommendations on just three or four prime issues.

CII Director-General N Srinivasan, along with some CII economists, met Chandrashekhar and Shome to lobby for a cut in corporate and personal tax rates.

FICCI, on the other hand, has had a couple of closed-door meetings with ministry officials. Its president, Onkar Singh Kanwar, has been pressing for introduction of an investment allowance where a firm gets to choose the quantum of depreciation and the years of claim.

Assocham, which claims to have contacted officials half-a-dozen times in the past two weeks, is pushing for a reduction of import duty on all industrial inputs.

Assocham economists too have met Chandrashekhar and Menon to put forth their views on the impact of the education cess and MAT.

Regional associations like PHDCCI also had separate meetings not only with the finance minister but also with various secretaries.

PHDCCI president K N Memani discussed "tax simplification reforms specially for the agriculture sector in the northern states". PHDCCI officials have also demanded policies to regularise the construction sector.