See streamlining of taxes in budget: CII

Excerpts from Bazaar on CNBC-TV18 Watch the full show » Nifty BSE | NSE 29/05/12 Are Mutual Funds betting on Nifty?

Q: While the corporate tax rate might go untouched are you hopeful that the surcharge maybe relooked at this time?

A: What we have been asking is to merge everything into one rate of taxation whether that will be done or not, I cannot comment but that is our demand or request being revenue neutral to the government. 

Q: You are saying you are perfectly happy with a higher rate of taxation but you don't want any of the surcharges?

A: We do not want multiple taxes on the same issue.

Q: As the head of the industry body (Confederation of Indian Industry) CII, I wanted to get your thoughts on now concerned you are about the progress right now of the monsoon or do you feel comfortable after what's happened over the past week that this is not going to be a major worry for us in our economy?

A: The monsoon is advanced over the country or 80% of the country but the intensity is still unknown and although the predictions of (India Meteorological Department) IMD that it will be very close to normal, the next four weeks will be very critical to the success of the monsoon.

Q: What's the general sentiment at the CII right now after the improvement on the ground for the last three months? Are people confident going into the second half or are they still circumspect about the durability of the recovery? 

A: Circumspect is not the right word; I would say, we are still cautious. I think there are early signs of optimism and we now want to keep that spirit going. We want to make sure that the recovery is fully stable. 
Q: You are also part of an industry that's been through an extremely rough ways. I mean some sops did come in the stimulus packages do you think the budget will address the auto sector in specific as well?

A: I hope they will address two sectors; one is hard infrastructure of roads and ports and with that Mr. Kamal Nath is doing a very confident that road laying will pickup to 16-20 kilometers a day. If that happens automatically there will be a pull for cement, steel, trucks and earth building equipment.

The second thing we like the government to do is address low-cost housing; 350-500 sq. ft houses for industrial workers and entry level workers with tax sops and means a million houses can be built.

The soft infrastructure wise heath and education requires significant investment again, education both at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels need significant improvement if India is going to become a productive country particularly skill development is - there is a national skill development corporation but we need to really see on the ground hundreds of thousands of young men and women trained to work in offices, trained to work in industries.