Reduce excise duty rate from 16 to 14 pct: CII

Reduce excise duty rate from 16 to 14 pct: CII

New Delhi, Dec.18 (ANI): India has one of the highest incidences of indirect tax on goods, where most of the manufactured products attract

16 percent excise duty and 12.5 percent value-added tax or VAT.

In line with the recommendation made by the Task Force on Indirect Taxes and the Task Force on Implementation of the FRBM Act to reduce the incidence of tax in India, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has called on the Central Government to reduce the excise duty rate from 16 to 14 percent.

In its pre-budget memorandum, the CII has also called for a reduction of excise duty on processed foods, pesticides for agriculture, energy efficient triphosphor fluorescent lamps, electric fans, caprolactum and two wheelers from 16 to 8 percent, on all type of cars from 24 to 16 percent and on cement from Rs.400 to Rs.350 per ton.

In the on going process of simplification of excise procedure, CII has, via it Pre-Budget Memorandum suggested - First, allow full CENVAT credit on capital goods on the date of the receipt. Second, allow payment of excise on used capital goods at the time of removal either on transaction value or on the depreciated value, as against the present provision of reversal of full CENVAT credit.

Third, allow CENVAT credit on LDO and HSD when used for generation of power or in the process of manufacture. Fourth, relax the requirement of pre-authentication of invoices for assessees paying excise duty of more than Rs. 5 crores.

Fifth, fix time limit for review of abatement rate by Advisory Committee on Abatement and give feedback of the findings of the committee to the applicant.

The CII Pre-Budget Memorandum has also drawn the attention of the Government for implementing its earlier proposal of bringing down the CST rate from four to two percent from April 1, 2007, and thereafter announcing a roadmap for further reduction of CST to NIL.

As the reduction in the CST will have adverse revenue impact to the states, CII has urged the Government to announce the acceptable compensation package for neutralizing the said impact.

On service tax, CII has recommended that the present rate of 12 percent should remain unchanged. For increasing the revenue from service tax, it has suggested that more services should be brought under the tax net.

For making the Service tax levy simpler in case of the Comprehensive Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC) covering labour and replacement of parts for consumer durable such as computer, refrigerator, CII has urged that service tax be charged on specified percentage of the contract value.CII's memorandum has urged the government to indicate and initiate concrete steps for implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) so that the common tax can be in place by 2010 as committed by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram in this year's budget. (ANI)

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