India Inc has churned out a list of demands for the Budget 2022-23 that will be presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday.

Ease of doing business, increased government spending, incentive schemes to create employment, and a simpler corporate tax regime are some of the top demands that corporates have put forth for the government to consider ahead of the Union Budget 2022-23.

An online survey conducted by Times of India and Deloitte found that 30.4% of respondents wanted the government to increase the ease of doing business in the upcoming budget.

Also, 26.5% of those surveyed wanted increased government spending to spur demand and simplification of the Goods & Services Tax (GST) regime.

Rohinton Sidhwa of Deloitte told TOI the government should opt for capital account convertibility to increase liquidity in the economy. Capital account convertibility refers to zero restrictions on the conversion of local currency into foreign currency in order to acquire foreign assets. Conversely, it also means no restrictions on the amount of money being brought in by non-resident Indians to acquire local assets.

Sidhwa also suggested allowing Indian companies to borrow at global interest rates rather than borrowing at “artificially higher rates”.

Corporate tax structure

About 47.5% of survey respondents felt that slashing corporate tax to bring at par with global economies in 2019 was a welcome step. Nearly 26% also believed that reducing regulations and controls will help Indian companies to compete with their global counterparts.

Meanwhile, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has suggested incentive schemes for employment-intensive industries to attract investments and boost employment.

“With the imperative to support jobs and create new employment as the country recovers from the pandemic, CII suggests that the Budget add a job-creation component to the incentive. CII also recommends that more employment-intensive sectors be brought under the purview of the PLI schemes which will greatly encourage investments in these sectors,” CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said.

These incentives may hinge on the number of jobs created with more weightage to job creation for PLI schemes, the industry body added.

CII also proposed enhancing the outlay of the rural job guarantee scheme MGNREGA in order to boost consumption.