PHDCCI Budget recommendation on specific sectors

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PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry

1.Railways 

  1. PHDCCI suggested that the Government should consider expeditiously setting up of the railway line from Pandurangapuram to the Temple town of Bhadrachalam
  2. PHDCCI urges Re-classification of Bauxite from class 160 to class 145 in Railways tariff structure
  3. The re-classification of Bauxite and reduction in freight costs will encourage additional freight volumes, thereby generating additional revenue for the Indian Railways.
  4. PHDCCI suggested Re-classification of Alumina from class 180 to class 170 in Railways tariff structure
  5. To facilitate streamlined logistics operations & raw material supply chain, the Aluminium and its raw materials be included in category “C” of of Railway’s Preferential Traffic Order from category – ‘”D”
  6. PHD Chamber urges Inclusion of Coal and Coke for concessional freight rates for Short Lead Goods Traffic will boost railway revenue by increased freight volumes and encouraged shifting from road to rail for short distances
  7. PHDCCI suggested concessional freight by 20% have been extended for distances over 1400-1600 km for Coal & Coke, Iron/ Steel and Iron Ore.
  8. 15% concessional rates to be extended for Coal, Coke and Aluminium metal and raw materials of Aluminium industry for distances between 1000-1400 KM
  9. 10% concessional rates to be extended for Coal, Coke and Aluminium metal and raw materials of Aluminium industry for distances between 500-1000 km
  10. 5 % concessional rates to be extended for Coal, Coke and Aluminium metal and raw materials of Aluminium industry for distances between 100-500 km

2.Ease of Doing business for New Hotels –

  1. PHDCCI suggest a single window clearance mechanism be established in each state to enable Ease of Doing Business for new hotels, enhance transparency and accord speedy approvals
  2. PHDCCI suggested that suitable framework be developed and implemented for bringing liquor for human consumption under the ambit of GST regime. Besides simplifying the tax structure for Hotels, GST on liquor will substantially reduce illicit liquor and counterfeiting by establishing stringent controls on manufacture and movement.

3.Copper Industry

  1. PHDCCI urges Custom duty on copper concentrate to be reduced from 2.5% to Nil this will encourage domestic companies to manufacture Value Added Products in India, instead of importing the same under FTA
  2. In order to provide sustainability to domestic manufacuter, it is important to increase the basic custom duty on copper cathodes on refined copper products from 5% to 7.5%

In order to protect India from being dumping ground of metal scrap, its important to make stricter operating norms for the scrap recyclers, so as to abide by environment friendly process. Environmental cess can be imposed on the imported scrap based on the Copper content of scrap – lower copper content calling for higher cess. Import duty on imported scrap to increase from 2.5% to 7.5%

4.Hotel Industry

    1. GST Rate for Hotel and Restaurant Services – It is suggested that in order to ensure a level playing field between stand-alone restaurants and those situated inside “starred” hotels the rate of GST on the latter category be reduced from 18% to 12% with availability of input tax credit.
    2. In order to boost up Hotel Industry and make it more competitive, it is suggested to lift the restriction of Section 17(5)(c) and 17(5)(d) of the CGST/SGST Act for this industry and to allow 130 | PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry input tax credit on goods and/or services used in construction of Hotel Building and fittings (in immovable nature).
    3. PHD Chamber suggested that tourism services provided to Foreign Tourists in India on receipt of foreign exchange should be treated as “Deemed Export” and exemption of GST should be made available.
    4. To revive the consumer demand it is suggested that all Restaurant and Outdoor catering services, irrespective of whether they are stand-alone or part of a hotel, should be Zero-rated or in the least be subjected to GST at the rate of 5% with full availability of input credit
    5. It is suggested that place of supply rules be modified so that taxes are charged basis the place of registration of the customer i.e. IGST is charged for customers outside the state to enable credit availment. This will enhance inter-state Indian meetings industry movement with companies getting interstate GST credit while using hotels for meetings tourism in other states in which they are not registered. This will also complete the end to end tourism value chain from hotels to tour operators and avoid double GST levies.

5.Solar Energy

  1. To encourage more investments in solar energy, PHDCCI suggested that a uniform policy should be laid down by the Centre to exempt solar energy generators from payment of electricity duty, parallel operating charges.

6.Paper & Paperboard Industry

High raw material cost from indigenous sources adversely impacts the competitiveness for the Indian Paper Industry. Hence, till such time plantations on degraded land becomes a reality, to support Domestic players by:

  1. Imposing 10% standard Customs duty on import of Paper & Paperboards from ASEAN, South Korea and China instead of the current Nil / concessional rates.
  2. Keeping Paper and Paperboard products in the Negative List (i.e., no preferential treatment) while reviewing the existing FTAs and formulating new FTAs including RCEPs.
  3. Withdrawing Custom Duty exemption for Hard Wood Pulp (since India grows hard wood)
  1. PHDCCI Recommendations on Decorative (Décor) Papers Industry

In order to provide a level playing field to the domestic industry and make Indian Industry more competitive it is recommended that:

  1. Government may consider to withdraw the exemption granted to Décor Paper under Notification No. 50/2018 – Customs (ADD) dated 30th June, 2018
  2. Government may consider to increase the exemption % on Titanium Dioxide to eliminate the impact of inverted duty structure.
  3. Government may consider imposition of Anti-dumping duties on imports of Décor Papers from China in order to align prices with import prices from other countries thereby preventing imports coming at cheap prices

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