Union Budget 2015: Corporate tax rate cut to encourage business community, industrialisation

KOLKATA: The proposals announced in the Union Budget including corporate tax rate cut will encourage the business community and boost industrialisation, according to industry leaders of West Bengal.

"Jaitley's focus on roads, airports and power is going to be highly beneficial. Directionally, the Budget has ushered in a fiscally-predictable tax regime. No budget in recent times has so courageously tackled so many burning issues - Indian business could not have asked for better," RP-Sanjiv Goenka group chairman Sanjiv Goenka said today.

The budget this year has many far-reaching features. For instance, the corporate tax rate cut and abolition of wealth tax, as also monetisation of gold.

The corporate tax rate cut to be down to 25 per cent over a period of four years - this is the rate that prevails in most Asian countries, including China, he said.

Darjeeling Tea Association chairman Sheo Shankar Bagaria said the govt has increased allocation for infrastructure expenses.

"Government has also empowered the states as equal partners for growth. The commitment for GST effective from 2016-17 is a very positive step," he said.

"The lower corporate tax for the next 4 years should encourage the business community and boost industrialisation. Stricter laws for benami transactions and black money too would help in bringing back the money into the country," Bagaria said in his reaction.

Calcutta Stock Exchange chairman Dipankar Chatterji said pushing for RUPay card and involving post offices as payment bank will have extremely positive long term benefit in curbing black money.

"If the government is able to channelise gold monetising scheme, it will go a long way. But, the challenge will be how to bring confidence among the people to disclose," he said.