Reasonable tax rates needed to make India a manufacturing hub: Jaitley

In order to keep manufacturing sector competitive and boost the economic growth, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley ahead of the Union Budget 2016-17 has said that India needs to keep tax rates reasonable to become an attractive manufacturing hub and has to occasionally vary those rates. His comments come at a time when the manufacturing sector is showing incipient signs of a turnaround.

Jaitley at the Investiture Ceremony 2016 and Annual Central Excise Custom Day Function said that “Manufacturing itself is not only extremely important activity, but it is one activity with a spiral effect on the economy which also creates the largest volumes of job.”

He said that as the economies grow, not only the width of revenue grows but the expectation of people for greater level of developments, evolution of society as welfare state also grows. Manufacturing in any growing economy has a very vital role.

Further, the Minister is also looking at reducing the corporate tax rate to 25 per cent from the current 30 per cent over the next four years while winding up exemptions to India Inc.