Union Budget 2015: Corporate tax to fall to 25% in 4 yrs; exemptions to go

Moneycontrol Bureau

In what would come as a boost to India Inc, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the government would cut the base corporate tax rate from 30 percent to 25 percent over the course of the next four years but he added that over the same time, various exemptions granted to corporates will be phased out.

The move, he said, would facilitate a tax rate comparable to other countries, the finance minister said, while adding that elimination of exemptions would bring down the element of discretion or lobbying.

In a further bid to India Inc, the FM further said that customs duty would be reduced on 22 items, a move that would correct some of the inverted duty structures that exist in the economy.

For overseas investors, the FM had also said the controversial general anti-avoidance rules (GAAR) would be deferred by two years.