Pre Budget Session Meet

The National Statistical Office will release the first advance estimates of economic growth for 2022-23 on Friday evening, three weeks ahead of presentation of General Budget in Lok Sabha on February 1. The first advance estimates of national income for 2022-23 is significant because the data is used for preparing the Budget of the central government for next financial year of 2023-24. Earlier last month, the Reserve Bank of India had lowered the country's GDP (gross domestic product) growth forecast to 6.8 per cent for the current fiscal from 7 per cent earlier, on account of continued geopolitical tensions and tightening of global financial conditions. The RBI had projected the real GDP growth for 2022-23 at 6.8 per cent, with the third quarter at 4.4 per cent and the fourth at 4.2 per cent. It had pared the growth projection for 2022-23 for the third time in December 2022. In April 2022, the central bank had cut the GDP growth estimate from 7.8 per cent to 7.2 per cent, and fur

Cut income tax for individuals, bring programmes to generate employment, increase spending to boost the economy and incentives for certain industries were the common pleas made in the pre-Budget meetings that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held with stakeholders. Sitharaman held eight rounds of discussions starting with India Inc on November 21 and ending with a round of consultation with economists on Monday. The Budget 2023-24 would be tabled in Parliament on February 1. The representatives of the stakeholder groups made a number of suggestions for the forthcoming budget that included a mechanism for green certification to help MSMEs, an urban employment guarantee programme to boost employment generation, and rationalisation of income tax, the finance ministry said. Schemes for improving domestic supply chains, reduction of taxes on electric vehicles, the introduction of EV policy, measures to promote India as a hub for green hydrogen, a portable social benefit for children,

10 trade unions of the country in a letter to Nirmala Sitharaman have threatened to boycott their pre-budget meeting scheduled for Nov 28, protesting lack of proper time to put forward their demands

To encourage retail investors to invest in yellow metal through mutual fund route, industry body Amfi has asked the government for preferential tax treatment for Gold ETFs and Fund of Funds ahead of the Union Budget. In its budget proposals for 2023-24 to the finance ministry, Amfi has proposed that Gold ETFs and Fund of Funds (FoF), which invest 90 per cent or more of their corpus in units of Gold ETFs, should be subjected to long-term capital gains tax of 10 per cent instead of 20 per cent with indexation benefit. Alternatively, it has suggested that holding period to avail long-term capital gains taxation in respect of Gold ETFs (exchange traded funds) should be reduced from existing three years to one year. "A preferential tax treatment to financial gold offerings like Gold ETFs and Fund of Funds ...will promote the category as a gold investment avenue over other fiscally inefficient avenues like physical gold and gold jewellery. This move will be in line with the government's

Representatives from Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday and sought granting of infrastructure status to the hospitality industry in the forthcoming Budget. Currently, hotels built with an investment of Rs 200 crore or more have been accorded infrastructure status under the RBI infrastructure lending norm criteria. The association has requested that this threshold be brought down to Rs 10 crore to give a fillip to budget segment hotels. This will enable hotels to avail term loans at lower rates of interest and also benefit from longer repayment periods. It has also requested for hospitality to be classified as an industry that's applicable across the country and create a corpus which compensates states for any notional loss, the association argued. "FHRAI put forth to the minister specific requests with special emphasis on granting infrastructure status to the hospitality industry," a release stated. The ...

Representatives from the commodity market have demanded cost rationalisation and reduction of commodity transaction tax to Rs 500 per crore from Rs 1000 per crore: Official

Mobile operators' association COAI has urged the government for a cut in licence fee to 1 per cent, and sought waiver of customs duty on network equipment for 5G rollout. In its Budget wishlist submitted to the finance ministry, the Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) has also pushed for abolition of the Universal Service Obligation Fund or USOF. The apex telecom association has urged the government for rationalisation of GST, reduction of licence fee to 1 per cent from 3 per cent and waiver of customs duty on 5G network equipment. During the pre-Budget discussions held on Monday, COAI also sought removal of GST on licence fee, spectrum usage charges and payment of spectrum acquired in auctions. Other demands include refund of accumulated input tax credit of GST (Rs 32,000 crore) and clarification regarding availability of input tax credit on critical equipment installed on telecom towers. COAI counts telecom operators like Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will hold pre-budget consultations with her state counterparts on Friday. The meeting is part of the customary meetings that the minister undertakes with stakeholders before the presentation of the Union Budget on February 1. The pre-budget meeting with state finance ministers will be held in New Delhi on November 25, an official said. Sitharaman on Monday began consultation to seek suggestions for the Budget 2023-24 with industry captains and experts from infrastructure and climate change. On November 22, the minister will meet the agriculture and agro-processing industry, representatives from the financial sector and capital market. She will also be meeting the representatives of the services sector and trade bodies, besides experts from the social sector, including health, education, water and sanitation, on November 24, in virtual mode. The budget for the next year will have to address critical issues of high inflation, boosting demand, job

The Budget should focus on measures to accelerate job creation and broaden the tax base by rationalising GST and personal income tax slabs to boost consumption, industry bodies said in their pre-Budget meeting with finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday. "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," CII president Sanjiv Bajaj said. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) was part of the virtual pre-Budget meeting which was called for an aggressive focus on privatisation of public sector units and increasing allocation to capital expenditure with focus on an investment led growth strategy to pump India's economy amidst the global uncertainty. To boost job creation, CII suggested that an employment linked incentive scheme be introduced and the government could consider an urban ..

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday kicked off pre-budget consultations, holding meetings with industry chamber heads and infrastructure experts about their expectations from the upcoming Budget. The meetings were held virtually and Union Ministers Of State For Finance Pankaj Chaudhary, Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad, and other senior officials also attended the meeting. "Union Finance Minister Smt. @nsitharaman chairs her 1st #PreBudget2023 consultation with the first group of captains from Industry & experts of #Infrastructure and #ClimateChange, in New Delhi, today," the Ministry of Finance said in a tweet. "The 2nd #PreBudget2023 meeting is being attended by MoS Finance Shri @mppchaudhary and Dr @DrBhagwatKarad ; Finance Secretary Dr T.V. Somanathan; Secretaries of DEA, @SecyDIPAM, DoR, @DFS_India, CEA Dr Anantha Nageswaran & Senior Economic Advisor @FinMinIndia," it added. The participants gave suggestions on the 2023-24 Budget, which will be presented in Parliament by

Bhupender Yadav and Arun Singh, and party's spokesperson on economic affairs, Gopal Krishna Agarwal were among those who attended the meeting

Modi was speaking at a meeting of leaders of various political parties ahead of the Parliament session, convened by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar