Mr. K Madhavan, MD, Peps industries:
"Though the "Goods & Service Tax" bill has been passed by the Rajya Sabha in August 2016, its implementation date is in uncertainty. However, the government has recently announced its roll out date to be July 1st, yet the "Fitment Rate" remains uncertain as on date.
There is hope that the cascading taxes of present times are eliminated and the tax structure is simplified to boost productivity, lower costs and large revenue benefits for the government. This will certainly improve the GDP and may also bring down inflation. From the recent developments it can be understood that the government is working on setting up a process for tax assessment jointly by the state and the center. But we are yet to have clarity as to what proportion of the revenue generation will be shared. In general, the cloud of anxiety is hanging over the minds of manufacturers like PEPS on GST!
The sector is expecting many changes from the Budget that is going to be announced by our Finance Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley. I hope this will be the budget that is going to strengthen the bold effort of demonetization introduced by our Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi. This might even be a sequel to the demonetization initiative. The country is expected to be doing 80% of transaction in cash and now efforts are in the anvil for digitization. If the process goes well, it will improve the liquidity and the budget can focus more on "National Infrastructure Development ".
On the personal front, as a senior citizen, I would appreciate if this budget could do away with "Tax on Interest Income" on Bank FD's and RD's for individuals. This will certainly boost the people to save, and also, bank deposits will also improve substantially."