December 2, 2019
Saugata Roy seeks clarification on the Minister’s speech on The Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2019
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Sir, I have a very short clarification. The Minister has said that in view of various development, it was felt that there was an urgent need to take additional fiscal measures, first to boost investment and growth in the economy for which the Government already announced certain measures. It has been noticed in many countries over the world have reduced corporate income tax to attract investment and trade, employment opportunities thus necessitating the need of similar measures in the form of reduction in corporate income tax payable by domestic companies in order to make Indian industry more competitive. This was the part of the statement of object of business.
Sir, I read here the corporate income tax in several countries. In China, it is 25 percent, in South Korea 27.5 percent, in Japan it is 29.7 percent, in Italy it is 27.8 percent, in Germany it is 29.8 percent and in France it is 34.4 percent. These advanced industrial countries have not thought it fit to reduce their corporate income tax to attract investment.
My simple question is instead of reducing corporate income tax, why didn’t you go for reduction of personal income tax which would have brought more money to the hands of the consumer and thus given a fillip and needs to be very sagging economy whose growth rate has sunk to 4.5 percent. That is my clarification.
