Budget 2020 expectations: Proposals to enable ease of doing business, simplify tax issues likely?

Budget 2020 expectations: Industry, traders and common man would all be hoping for announcements that help the revival of economic growth when Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presents Union Budget 2020 (#BUDGET2020ZEE) in Parliament on February 1. Gokul Chaudhri, Partner, Deloitte India believes that proposals should be made to enable ease of doing business, simplify tax issues and promote investment flows to the country.

"The Budget (#BUDGET2020ZEE) is expected to focus on measures to spur demand and lift economic growth. We hope that the tax proposals in the Budget  (#BUDGET2020ZEE) enable ease of doing business, simplify tax issues, promote investment flows and tax certainty," he said.

Chaudhri suggested that the government should rationalise the taxation of start-ups by aligning the existing provisions with the recent notification issued by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). He believes that this could provide impetus on ease of doing business in India.

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Exemption to foreign companies with respect to filing of tax returns in India and measures to improve the existing dispute-resolution process or mechanisms to reduce backlog of tax cases are two other measures that can make a difference, he said.

"To stimulate investment flows, the Government may enhance the benefit of concessional tax-withholding rate to other forms of funding such as INR denominated External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs), Compulsory Convertible Debentures (CCDs), Non-Convertible Debentures (NCDs), etc., and extend the sunset date of 1 July 2020," Chaudhri said.

He said that the government should issue safe harbor rules to mitigate inadvertent tax-presence creation on account of secondment or deputation of employees by MNCs to India, in order to increase tax certainty.