Budget 2023 shall focus on job creation, broaden tax base: Industry bodies to FM

“The external scenario is likely to continue to be unfavourable for some time. Hence, we must broad-base our domestic economy by creating new sectors of growth and driving employment generation to boost domestic demand, inclusion, and growth,” news agency PTI quoted CII president Sanjiv Bajaj as saying.

ALSO READ: Budget 2023-24: FM Nirmala Sitharaman chairs 1st pre-budget meeting with experts

The CII even called for an aggressive focus on privatisation of public sector units and increasing allocation to capital expenditure. It emphasised on government should focus on an investment led growth strategy to pump India’s economy amidst the global uncertainty.

The CII suggested that an employment linked incentive scheme be introduced to boost job creation and the government could consider an urban employment guarantee scheme and initiate a pilot in metro cities first in this Budget.

“Going forward, to provide tax certainty to businesses, the corporate tax rates should be maintained at the current levels,” the CII president said, adding, “Further simplification, rationalisation, ease of paying taxes, and reducing tax litigation should be key priorities.”

During the meeting with FM Sitharaman, another industry body PHDCCI also submitted its suggestions for the Budget to the finance minister virtually on Monday.

PHDCCI suggested a five-pronged strategy to revitalise the private investments through measures to enhance consumption, increase capacity utilisation in factories, boost job creation, improve quality of social infrastructure, and accelerate India’s economic growth.

“The Union Budget 2023-24 is being presented at a crucial juncture of geo-political uncertainties, high inflation and slowing world economic growth. At this juncture, calibrated steps to enhance domestic sources of growth would be crucial to maintain the steady economic growth trajectory,” said Saket Dalmia, president, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI), in a statement.

With PTI inputs.