Dr.Hasmukh Aadhia, Revenue Secretary has started holding detailed meetings from today onwards with industry and business representatives of major national chambers as well as with the representatives of different sectors in order to generate new ideas for tax policy reforms for the next budget. The Ministry of Finance is quite conscious of the fact that Tax Policy could be used as an important instrument of enhancing the speed of economic growth of the country and therefore, it is important to have proper stakeholder consultation out of box thinking. This is an attempt in that direction.

The First such Meeting was held here today with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) delegation consisting of Dr. Naushad Forbes, President designate of CII and ten other representatives of CII. Similar meetings will be held with representatives of FICCI on September 30, 2015, with ASSOCHAM on October 6, 2015 and with PHD Chamber of Commerce on October 7, 2015.

The Revenue Secretary Dr. Adhia will also have such meetings with industry and business representatives in Bengaluru on October 1, 2015 and in Ahmedabad on October 10, 2015. Soon after this, he would be holding sectoral meetings with industry and business representatives from Electronic & IT Industry, Telecom Industry, Power Industry, Road Transport & Highway Industry and with representatives of Financial Services sector, in the presence of Secretaries of the concerned Departments from 26th October to 30th October, 2015.

Tax policy consultation drives stakeholder-sourced reforms through sectoral and chamber meetings to promote higher investment and economic growth. The Revenue Secretary has initiated structured consultations with industry chambers and sector delegations to solicit ideas for reforming tax policy aimed at accelerating investment and economic growth, using sequenced national, regional and sectoral meetings-covering industries such as electronics and IT, telecom, power, transport and financial services-and involving departmental secretaries to integrate stakeholder and departmental inputs into budgetary policy options.