Impact of corporate tax rate cut to be felt in coming years: Anurag Thakur

Govt said the lowering of corporate tax rate has made India a globally competitive and favoured destination for investment and the impact of this landmark reform will be felt in the coming years

The government on Monday said the lowering of corporate tax rate has made India a globally competitive and favoured destination for investment and the impact of this landmark reform will be felt in the coming years.

The government last year slashed the base corporation tax rate to 22 per cent from 30 per cent, leading to revenue implication of Rs 1.45 lakh crore.

"The Government, in its endeavour to make India a globally competitive and favoured destination for investment, reduced the corporate tax rate for new companies in the manufacturing sector to 15 per cent and to 22 per cent for existing companies in September, 2019," Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

This has enabled the corporate tax rates in India to be amongst the lowest in the world, he said, adding "given that investment decisions have a long term perspective, the impact of this landmark reform would be felt in coming years".

As per the estimates of gross domestic product for the first quarter 2020-21, Thakur said, the real GDP in India contracted by 23.9 per cent as against a 5.2 per cent growth in the same quarter previous fiscal.

"With the phased unlocking of the Indian economy since June 1, 2020, high-frequency economic indicators like PMI Manufacturing, index of eight core industries, E-way bills, Kharif sowing, power consumption, railway freight, cargo traffic and passenger vehicle sales have recovered and indicate growing convergence with previous year's activity levels," he said.

In July 2020, merchandise exports of India were estimated at USD 23.6 billion, as against USD 26.3 billion in July 2019, while the merchandise imports stood at USD 28.5 billion in July 2020, compared to USD 39.8 billion a year ago, he said in a reply to another question.

This is in line with the contraction witnessed in world trade in the first four months of 2020-21, due to which exports contracted by (-) 30.2 per cent and imports by (-) 46.7 per cent, over the corresponding period of the previous year, he said.

GST collections for the first quarter of 2020-21 were 59 per cent of the revenue collected during the same quarter last year, Thakur said in a reply to a question asked by V K Sreekandan, Congress MP from Kerala.

However, GST collections for August recovered to Rs 86,449 crore, reaching 88 per cent of collections in the same month previous year.

Structural reforms have been announced as part of the Atmanirbhar Package, which include deregulation of the agricultural sector, change in the definition of MSMEs, new PSU policy, commercialisation of coal mining, higher FDI limits in defence and space sector.

In reply to another question, Thakur said, the total investment of Rs 18,152.14 crore for 4,81,65,057 grams of gold has been received in 42 issuances since the inception of the Sovereign Gold Bonds (SGBs) scheme.

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