Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, held third Pre-Budget Consultations with stakeholder Groups from Industry, Trade and Services Sectors in connection with the forthcoming General Budget 2020-21 here today.

The main areas of discussion during the aforesaid meeting included regulatory environment impacting private investment, measures for promotion of exports amidst rising protectionist tendencies, Industrial production, logistics, Media & Entertainment services & IT & IT enabled services among others.

Along with the Finance Minister, the meeting was attended by Shri Anurag Thakur, Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Finance Secretary, Shri Rajeev Kumar, Shri Atanu Chakraborty, Secretary, Economic Affairs,  Shri Ajay Bhushan Pandey, Revenue Secretary, Shri Yogendra Tripathi, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Shri Guruprasad Mohapatra, Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Shri Anup Wadhanwan, Secretary Department of Commerce, Shri Pramod Chandra Mody, Chairman, CBDT, Shri P.K. Das, Chairman, CBIC, Dr K.V. Subramanian, CEA and other senior officials of Ministry of Finance.

With a view to give boost to Indian economy, the representatives of Industry, Services and Trade Sectors submitted several suggestions concerning Ease of doing business  for going concern by reduction of compliance burden , reduction of tax litigation , allowing self-certification in low risk industry , decriminalisation of Tax and Company Laws   , reduction of cost of equity capital , simplification and rationalisation with regards to duties and labour laws , adoption of international standards of Alternative Dispute Resolution , Export Development funds for helping MSME exporters , ease of investment flow into manufacturing sector.

Representatives of Industry, Services and trade Sectors included Shri Vikram Kirloskar, President, CIL, Shri Sandip Somany, President, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Shri Deepak Sood, Secretary General ASSOCHAM , Shri Ashish Vaid President, IMC Chamber of Commerce and Industry,   Shri DK Aggarwal , President , PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry,  Shri Animesh Saxena, President, Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises, Shri Ajay Sahai, DG & CEO, FIEO, Shri C Veeramani, IGIDR, Shri Pramod Kumar Agrawal, chairman, GJEPC, Shri Rajeev Singh, Director General, ICC, Shri C.R. Janardhana, President, FKCCI, Shri Panaruna Aqeel Ahmed, Chairman, Council for Leather Exports, Shri V. Venugopal, President, Cochin Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Shri  Padmanabh Sinha, Chairman, IVCA, Ms. Rajni Aggrawal, President, Federation of Indian Women Entrepreneurs (FIWE), Shri Sachin Taparia, Chairman & CEO, Local Circles India Pvt. Ltd, Shri Aswani Mahajan,  Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, Shri Govind Lale, Laghu Udyog Bharathi, Shri Jitendra Gupta, Laghu Udyog Bharathi .

Decriminalisation of tax and company laws proposed to reduce compliance burden and ease doing business before the budget. Pre-budget consultations focused on measures to stimulate private investment and exports, proposing decriminalisation of tax and company laws, broad reduction of compliance burdens, reduction of tax litigation, self-certification for low-risk enterprises, simplification of duties and labour regulations, adoption of international-standard ADR, Export Development funds for MSME exporters, and measures to ease investment into manufacturing.