Hyderabad: For the first time, the state government will have a say in the preparation of the Union Budget.
The Centre has written to the TS government seeking its views and suggestions on Budget proposals for 2015-16 with regard taxation besides seeking details of the needs of state.
Union revenue secretary Shaktikanta Das has written a letter to TS government to this effect. He asked the government to submit a report on the issues and concerns that need to be addressed in the Budget.
Responding to this, finance minister Etela Rajender on Friday convened a meeting with industrialists at the Secretariat to seek their views on direct and indirect taxes, which could be referred to the Centre.
Representatives from about 15 industry bodies such as FICCI, CII, FAPCCI, DICCI, etc. sought certain rebates on direct and indirect taxes for Telangana, which is a new state formed only six months ago.
"The industrailists sought certain tax rebates for the speedy development of industrial sector in Telangana State. The major being raising the centralexcise tax limit from Rs 1.5 crore to 5 crore.
Besides they sought reduction of interest loans from the present 14.5 per cent.," Mr Rajender said. Stating that this was only the preliminary meeting, he said the government will
hold more such meetings with various sectors and take the inputs from all the stakeholders concerned before sending a final report to the Centre.
Normally, the Centre holds budget preparatory exercise discussions with various trade bodies directly and draft budget proposals.
However, the Modi-led NDA government has decided to involve state governments directly in budget exercise to ensure that their needs and issues are addressed.
This is in accordance with the recent meeting conducted by Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi with Chief ministers of all the states recently to seek suggestions on replacing Planning Commission.
Mr Modi sought involvement of all the CMs while drafting plans for the development of states instead of entrusting the responsibility soley to Planning Commission.
