What CEOs want from Budget 2014-15

With Budget 2014-15 round the corner, Business Today's E Kumar Sharma, Ajay Modi and Sarika Malhotra spoke to CEOs about their expectations from Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's maiden budget.

V. Jagannathan, CMD, Star Health and Allied Insurance Company

1. Announce higher exemption under Section 80D of the Income Tax Act

2. Allow FDI in insurance up to 49 per cent

3. No Minimum Alternate Tax for insurance companies

L. Ramkumar, Managing Director, Tube Investments of India

1. Commit resources to rapid development of the infrastructure sector

2. Review welfare schemes and subsidies and reallocate funds towards employment-generating projects

3. Enhance foreign direct investment limit in various sectors such as insurance

Ravichandran Purushothaman, President, Danfoss India

1. Announce infrastructure status for the agriculture sector

2. Significant focus on manufacturing

3. Open coal mining to private sector

4. Roll out GST from April 1, 2015

Suresh J, MD & CEO, Arvind Lifestyle Brands Ltd

1. Implement GST within a certain time frame

2. Change certain laws such as Commodities Act and Weights & Measurement Act

3. We are not expecting too much on the FDI because the government's position is known

Arun Jain, chairman and managing director, Polaris Financial Technology

1. Take steps to build a Silicon Valley in India

2. Give fresh impetus to the software sector

3. Announce tax benefits for high-quality technology products developed in India

RAJESH SRIVASTAVA, CHAIRMAN AND MANAGING DIRECTOR, RABO EQUITY ADVISORS

1. Permanent scrapping of retrospective taxation provisions  

2. Decisive measures for privatization of Public Sector Units  

3. Strict guidelines for using MGNREGA funds for agriculture/rural (including social) infrastructure and clear accountability matrix.

B. Soundararajan, Chairman, Suguna Holdings Pvt. Ltd

1. Roll out the Goods and Services Tax (GST)

2. Focus on infrastructure development

3. Take measures to raise farm output

RS SODHI, MANAGING DIRECTOR, AMUL

1. Reduce income tax on cooperatives

2. Exempt cooperatives from domestic transfer pricing

3. Remove excise duty from dairy industry equipments

VIJAY MAHAJAN, SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR, AND FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN, BASIX GROUP

1. Ensure that all government payments - be it under NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) or any other programme where cash payments are involved - are made only through the bank accounts of the end beneficiary. This will not only improve transparency, create a fund float for the banks, but will also incentivise more poor people to open/use bank accounts.

2. Make availability of credit mandatory for any borrower. This will mean massive use of credit bureaus.

3. There should be a national commission to consider loan waivers. It should have professional experts on board and perhaps be chaired by a retired Reserve Bank of India governor. This will ensure that loan waivers happen in genuine cases and do not become a give away by politicians.

KIRAN MAZUMDAR-SHAW, CHAIRMAN AND MANAGING DIRECTOR, BIOCON

1. Provide tax incentives to encourage exports, investments and create jobs

2. Incentivise pharmaceutical manufacturing, which is capital intensive, through measures such as extending interest subsidy and/or providing tax incentives to those pharmaceutical units that re-invest part of their profits into expanding manufacturing.

3. Remove the 18.5 per cent Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) on pharmaceutical special economic zones (SEZs) as it hurts their economic viability.

C. KRISHNA PRASAD, MANAGING DIRECTOR, GRANULES INDIA

1. Remove MAT for pharma SEZ units

2. Provide tax incentives for export-oriented pharma units

3. Remove service tax for all export-oriented pharma units

AJAY S. SHRIRAM, CHAIRMAN AND SENIOR MANAGING DIRECTOR, DCM SHRIRAM

1. The government should lay a clear roadmap for the next 2-3 years to accelerate growth. GST should be implemented

2. Promote India as an attractive business destination by simplifying processes and procedures

3. Give 100 per cent clarity on not having retrospective tax implemented in future, except in the rarest of the rare case

PREETHA REDDY, MANAGING DIRECTOR, APOLLO HOSPITALS GROUP

1. Treat health-care as a priority sector and announce comprehensive measures that can boost the sector instead of extended piecemeal concessions

2. Incentives for health-care sector that can help reduce the cost of setting up new facilities

3. Package of incentives that can encourage health-care players to take up training and skill development, which is very important for the sector

SUDESH MENON, CEO, WATERLIFE INDIA

1. Like there are tax slabs for individual taxpayers, there should be a similar structure for start-ups and they should not have to pay the same level of tax as mature and established companies do.

2. Create a social fund at a national level wherein companies could share a part of their funds allocated to corporate social responsibility initiatives and there could be an entity created and professionally run to invest in social enterprises.

3. Broaden the definition of priority sector to include more sectors, including water for instance, so that banks can expand lending to them and spur social entrepreneurship.

A.V. DHARMAKRISHNAN, CEO, RAMCO CEMENTS

1. Allocation for creation of mega cities

2. Allocation for infrastructure projects

3. Roadmap for GST implementation

A. VELLAYAN, EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, MURUGAPPA GROUP

1. Encourage the manufacturing sector by reversing inverted duty structures

2. Reduce subsidy burden by increasing urea price substantially.

3. Introduce progressive measures to control inflation including implementation of GST and maintaining buffer stocks of key commodities.

4. Allocate funds transparently for schemes announced in the budget without a planned flow over into the next year (as was done in the last three years).

MANISH SABHARWAL, CHAIRMAN, TEAMLEASE

1. Give employees an option to pay their 12 per cent employee contribution to the Provident Fund. India's labour laws confiscate 48 per cent of low-wage salaries and this is the primary cause for India's informal employment.

2. Give states an explicit assurance that all state legislatures who pass labour law amendments and send them to the Centre will receive presidential assent. The concurrent list has created the world's biggest policy traffic jam and states should be allowed to follow the lead of Rajasthan without uncertainty.

3. Put a date for amendments to the Apprenticeship Act. India's only 300,000 apprentices represent a massive underutilization of learning-by-doing and learning-while-earning.

SIDDHARTHA ROY, COO, HUNGAMA DIGITAL MEDIA ENTERTAINMENT

1. We expect this to be a consumer-focused budget which leaves more money in the common man's hand. That's the biggest wish we have.

2. We need a strong telecom infrastructure which provides for seamless delivery of services. We are awaiting the new telecom policy to be rolled out. The new broadband policy is aggressive but implementation will be important.

UDAY KOTAK, EXECUTIVE VICE-CHAIRMAN AND MD, KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK

1. Revisit all areas of taxation, including retrospective taxation. A roadmap for the Goods and Services Tax and a simpler Direct Taxes Code would encourage entrepreneurship.

2. Boost equity investments by Indian savers by moving them to financial savings from gold and real estate.

3. We need to move from a society of entitlement to a society of opportunity - move from NREGA to karega.

N.K. RANGANATH, MD, GRUNDFOS PUMPS

1. Need policies that are consistent and long term and with no retrospective effect.

2. Remove unnecessary subsidies and increase limits for zero income tax -perhaps Rs 10 or Rs 15 lakh to compensate for increase in prices when subsidy is removed.

3. Bring in policies to give an impetus to manufacturing. For example:

a) Remove inverted duty structure wherever it occurs - where the duty on raw material and components is higher than the duty on finished products.

b) Previously, SEZ was given tax sops for the profits earned. That needs to be reintroduced.

c) Reduce duties on energy efficient equipment to cut energy consumption and improve energy availability for industry.