CII Proposes 100-Day Agenda for New Government

Unveiling the CII action theme for the year as ‘Accelerating Growth, Creating Employment’, Mr Shriram noted, “With slowing growth and high inflation adversely impacting employment, CII will urge the nextGovernment to focus on reviving growth and generating new jobs.”

In his press conference, Mr Shriram added that CII has proposed a strong 100-day action agenda for the new governmentto boost growth. “A strong economic revival package and right implementation of policies by a fresh Government can help create as many as 150 million jobs in the next ten years,” he stressed. “Industry is looking for top policy steps such as introduction of GST, easing of interest rates by 100 bps, keeping subsidies at 1.7 per cent of GDP, and restructuring of labour laws to promote mass manufacturing.”

CII further stated thatwithcontinuing robust reforms, GDP growth could be taken back to the 8 per cent level in the next three years. “Amarket-friendly environment is required that would proactively promote investments, business and entrepreneurship,” said Mr Shriram. Mass manufacturing sectors and labour-intensive services sectors need to be encouraged, he continued.

Key priorities for CII in the coming year will be in the following ten areas: education, skills, economic growth, manufacturing sector growth, investments, ease of doing business, export competitiveness, legal and regulatory architecture, labour law reforms and entrepreneurship.

CII has strongly called for implementation of the following policies, among others, in the first 100 days by the next Government:

–          Introduction of GST

–          Containment of subsidies and fiscal consolidation

–          Monetary easing – reduction in the repo rate by 100 bps

–          Maintenance of a competitive exchange rate

–          Fast-tracking stalled projects and increasing public capital investments

–          Timely implementation of DMIC and NIMZs

–          Setting up of state level mechanisms similar to Project Monitoring Group which will review and monitor projects at state level

–          A strong inter- Ministerial co-ordination group to resolve sticky issues like mining, raw material securitisation for sectors like Steel, etc

–          An institutional mechanism to renegotiate the terms of concession in Public Private Partnership Contracts to salvage stranded investments

–          Expansion of e-governance & technology based initiatives to simplify processes and online monitoring of application forms

–          Time-bound approvals by introducing ‘deemed approvals’ in case of delays beyond prescribed limit

–          Restructuring labour laws including introduction of Fixed Term Employment for industry to hire manpower on short term assignments

CII would continue to provide inputs in the areas of direct and indirect taxes to help India emerge as an attractive destination for business.

In agriculture, CII’s Food and Agricultural Center of Excellence (FACE)is studying the impact of Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee Act (APMC) which needs to be revamped to delist perishables. CII will also undertake a study on gas pricing and its impact on end-users, macro-economic indicators and the investment environment.

In manufacturing, it will work with concerned Ministries and State Governments on delayed projects and also on specific policies, particularly for labour-intensive sectors. CII has called for quick implementation of the National Manufacturing Policy and would bring out a report on Mass Manufacturing policy.For MSMEs, CII plans to launch a Finance Facilitation Centre and initiatives to link Indian SMEs with global value chains.

In services, CII will constitute National Services Competitiveness Council and develop a sectoral strategy for doubling of services export by 2025. It has targeted several sectors such as Tourism and Hospitality, Financial Services, Telecommunications and Professional Services for export promotion.

For better quality higher education, one of the CII interventions will be to launch the 100-100 program where 100 CII member companies will create 100 Faculty Sabbaticals who will spend two/ three months in industry to explore multi-level partnerships like research, curriculum, and skills development. In skills, CII will help implement the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) and continue to work on Sector Skills Councils.

In labour laws, CII will create platforms for sharing best practices from industry which have helped in fostering better industrial relations within the current framework. In addition, it will work with its membership, Trade Unions, Central and State Governments for creating consensus on various issues.

To improve the ease of doing business in India, CII will present to the government best practices in the states which can be emulated in the areas of land acquisition, contract enforcement and taxation. CII has been strongly underscoring the need for a reduction in transactions cost of exports to overcome difficult business conditions abroad. In this context, CII has constituted a task force on transactions costs which proposes a framework for building an efficient trade facilitation mechanism in India.

In order to support entrepreneurship, CII will significantly expand its PPP initiative “India Innovation Initiative” to select the most innovative entrepreneurs through a pan-India competition. 

Reviving Investments Critical for India to Achieve 8% Growth: Montek Singh Ahluwalia

Stressing on the need for continued policy actions for facilitating fast clearances of projects in the Infrastructure space, Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, emphasised that “Reviving confidence of both domestic and foreign investors will depend critically on reviving investments in the economy’. Highlighting the criticality of project clearances in reviving growth, Dr Ahluwalia said “Project clearance is the most important issue, after GST, which should be pushed vigorously to support growth. Dr Ahulwalia was addressing the participants at the inaugural session of “Conference on Reviving Investment: Imperatives for Project Clearance’ organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry in New Delhi today.

Speaking further on reviving investments, Dr Ahluwalia said that “Apart from addressing the regulatory aspects impacting project clearance, there is also need to address the financing issues to support the swift take off of the cleared projects.”

With the country going into the election mode, Dr Ahluwalia urged the industry to undertake preparatory work and come up with an agenda which would elucidate a set of actions to be taken by the new government to push the growth agenda forward.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Anil Swarup , Additional Secretary & Chairman Project Monitoring group , while focussing on the significance of digitisation in the clearance process said that, “ While digititisation of clearance processes would ensure fast tracking of approvals through instituting transparency and accountability, it will further facilitate getting various stakeholders at the ground level, for early resolution of the issues”. Highlighting the facilitative role played by PMG, Mr Swaroop eluded that the PMG has been able to facilitate clearance of around 147 projects worth Rs 5 lakh crore through a consultative approach involving all stakeholders.

Addressing the session Mr R Seshasayee, Past President & Chairman, Economic Policy and Council, CII and Executive Vice Chairman, Hinduja Group said that ensuring transparency, bringing clarity on policy interpretation and policy reengineering would be essential for speeding up processes for clearance.

Mr Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII, in his opening remarks said that the experience of working with the PMG on process rationalisation is a unique one and presents industry an opportunity to contribute to this important task.

While making a presentation on reviving investments, Mr Suresh Subudhi, Partner and Director, The Boston Consulting Group alluded that “the phased action plan that has been carved out to improve the situation of project clearences in terms of clearly defined steps aligned between the ministry and industry along with set guidelines and timelines would help in reducing the time for the clearances.  

Government Committed to Bring Efficient Tax Administration and Industry-Friendly Tax Structure: Sumit Bose, Revenue Secretary

Mr Sumit Bose, Revenue Secretary, Ministry of Finance, re-iterated the ministry’s commitment in bringing about efficiency in tax administration and establishing an industry-friendly tax structure. The way forward in the reform of the tax regime was to streamline the tax administration while following a consultative and collaborative approach with the various stakeholders, he said, while addressing the gathering at the 1^st Global Tax Summit, organized by Confederation of Indian Industry at Taj Place, New Delhi today.

Mentioning the various initiatives taken by the Government, RBI and the Ministry of Finance in the last one and a half years to help the economy navigate through the present difficult situation, Mr Bose expressed his optimism in India’s robust growth story going forward.

Talking about the recent developments in the country in the area of International Taxation and the recent steps taken by the Ministry of Finance to address the concerns of the investor community, Mr Bose observed that following a consultative and collaborative approach, involving suggestions of various stakeholders has a significant importance in developing a robust, efficient and industry friendly tax system.

Highlighting importance of Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) for India, the Revenue Secretary stated that “base erosion” remains a key concern for developing countries. He added that “residence” based taxation is under strain and is no longer an efficient method for just and fair allocation of profits. He specifically referred to ‘digital economy’ issues which are quite relevant in Indian context.

While appreciating the recent steps taken by the government to revive the investors’ confidence, Mr Rajiv Memani Chairman, National Committee on Indirect Taxes/GST, CII said that these steps will have a far-reaching consequence on the flow of investments into the country. On GST Mr Memani urged the government not to compromise with the GST design and thanked the Government on having approached an open and consultative approach in taking this reform forward.

Highlighting the importance of the clarity and stability in the tax regime for inspiring investors’ confidence, Dr Sudha Sharma Chairperson, Central Board of Direct Taxes, Ministry of Finance elucidated the various steps taken by the ministry in establishing a non-intrusive, non-interfering and assessee friendly tax system.

Dr Sudha Sharma assured the industry present at the conference that all concerns would be addressed in terms of disputes that might appear because of the tax structure or the interpretation of the tax structure and requested the industry to respond with the same spirit in paying the taxes and supporting the growth and development of the country.

In his concluding remarks, Mr R.K Agarwal, Chairman, Direct Tax Committee, CII urged that more steps be taken to engender investor confidence through tax reform and bring back an environment which is conducive to business.

Earlier, in his welcome remarks, Mr Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII said that the industry is appreciative of the consultative approach adopted by the Ministry of Finance in the evolution of the tax system in India. However, he pointed out that if revenue collection becomes the single point focus then it might not be conducive for creating an enabling business environment. 

Gujarat needs to retain talent for growth of IT sector

CII has contemplated a task group in the state of Gujarat for the Service and IT industry and will work on ways to achieve higher growth rate in these sectors.

It’s not that every state can have excellent growth in each and every sector of the economy. Every state has their own strengths.

If you look at the agriculture sector in Gujarat, it has achieved around 10 per cent rate of growth for past ten years. This is fabulous. But to increase the growth rate of state gross domestic product (SGDP), Gujarat could also look at the IT sector.

CII has also discussed the Goods and Services Tax (GST) issue with Modi and It has been a top priority of CII to play an active role in creating the right atmosphere for the implementation of GST.

The drivers for growth would be reforms and governance, inclusive growth and affirmative action, innovation, entrepreneurship and growth of MSMEs and transformation of sectors.

S Gopalakrishnan, President, CII and Co-Founder and Executive Co-Chairman, Infosys, who was in the state for an interactive meet of CII members, also had a meeting with Chief Minister Narendra Modi.