Davos 2023 | Minister Smriti Irani has this to say when asked about taxes

Union Minister Smriti Irani on Friday noted that the government of today had taken a different approach to tax and industry as against the governments of the past. Speaking at an interactive session at the World Economic Forum in Davos, she said that there were parts of our industry that were never part of the tax-paying structure, and these were not just individuals but industry segments.

“What has happened is that you have, after seven decades, introduced a system where you have necessitated the tax ethic in industry segments that felt why should I pay tax,” she said, adding that previous governments did not want to touch these segments as they had expansive workmanship or employee base.

CII Director-General Chandrajit Banerjee, Bajaj Finserv CMD Sanjiv Bajaj and Jubilant Bhartia co-chairman Hari S Bhartia were part of the discussion moderated by CNBC-TV18’s Shereen Bhan.

While Banerjee sought expanding of the tax base, Bajaj hoped for relief in income tax for the common man.

“Through the last few years, those at the lower end of our income segment got hurt the most. Inflation pinches them over the most. Can we rationalise tax, personal income taxes at that level, give them a little bit more money?” Bajaj wondered.

Irani refrained from speaking about tax provisions in the budget but said that the government today was appreciative of industry’s capacity to create wealth.

“The narrative one heard incessantly was how glorious it is to be poor. Now the government says that you need to aspire to a sustainable life, but you can aspire to better prospects. You need not be reduced to just labour, you can aspire to be an industry leader or an entrepreneur. And I think that that is a tectonic psychological shift when it comes to industry and manufacturing,” she said.

Irani stressed the need for greater collaboration between the Centre and states saying that any small failure would be blown up and designated as an India story.

“Why do we need a collective action? (Why we) need to give the signal that this is a collaboration, no matter how competitive we are, is because if any small story of failure emanates, it will not be designated to one state, one entity, one organisation or one business. It will be marked or it will be frameworked as an India story that did not work,” she said.

Earlier, Banerjee had said that the next level of India’s story would come from the states.

“There are 29 mini Indias competing and that's a very healthy competition. And I think that's where we will need to see business facilitation,” he said, adding that states’ capital expenditure along with that of the Centre's would strengthen infrastructure.

Irani on Friday stressed the need to have greater collaboration between the Centre and states saying that any small failure would be blown up and designated as an India story.

“Why do we need a collective action? (Why we) need to give the signal that this is a collaboration, no matter how competitive we are, is because if any small story of failure emanates, it will not be designated to one state, one entity, one organisation or one business. It will be marked or it will be frameworked as an India story that did not work,” she said.

The Minister for Women and Child Development said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets chief secretaries and secretaries of all states every month to ensure the smooth functioning of any infrastructure projects that had gotten choked.

She said the Gati Shakti scheme was not only a logistical intervention but also an intervention that makes the building of public assets more economical because there are many disruptions and the cost of money goes up when you build public infrastructure.

The government’s motive was not to lose collaboration in governance but “to leverage space technology and see how we can get things done, how we can minimise paperwork”. “And I think that is a template which manifests as a work ethic that this is India's century,” she said.

Sanjiv Bajaj observed that while the West was going through a certain level of recession, Indian markets are standing out with much higher rates of growth. And there were challenges such as balancing inflation, public debt with growth, and climate change. But these also offered opportunities “where India can play a significant role in the global economy”, he said.

Hari Bhartia said he had observed that the world has built muscle through the challenges it faced, whether it was Covid or the Russia-Ukraine war. “I don't see a sign of a deep recession. Somehow the economies have managed and the biggest opportunity that I see is they are trying to build a resilient supply chain.”

“India is on top of the mind, everybody knows India is a large consuming nation. So (there’s the) double advantage,” he said.

While the government had reduced several compliances and criminal provisions and improved the ease of doing business, Irani noted that there were few compliances that necessitates a safe workplace for labour.

“There are some compliances that necessitate issues like equal pay for equal work. There are some compliances that necessitates unnecessary burden on industry, let's say packaging or in measurements and those are the differentiated challenges that the government is applying itself to. But it is doing it in consonance with industry, it's not doing it alienating itself from the industry,” she said.

While Punit Renjen, CEO Emeritus, Deloitte Global, too agreed with the optimism surrounding India, N Venkatram, CEO, Deloitte India, noted that trust has been built in various areas, whether through ease of doing business or by reducing criminal provisions.

And he did add, citing the RRR song that won the Golden Globes award, that “there is absolutely no doubt that this elephant will dance”.