Dear Prime Minister Modi Ji,
I write this with fear and hope. India cannot survive when the SSI, SME, Startup Sectors suffer and die. The task force you set up under the Finance Minister hasn’t yet started working. I am suggesting 10 things that we would want the government to consider, with the hope that it can serve as the base case for suggestions. This comes from entreprenuers facing the brunt of the lockdown while putting up a brave face.
- Please Deposit Rs.5000 in each of the Jan Dhan accounts to compensate for loss of employment. The 298 million accounts would mean about 1.50 lac crores or $ 20 Billion.
- Please Allow delayed tax & GST payment by companies to be squared up before 30th June. Please clear all payments owed by government to all companies. Please process and refund all tax refund cases. This would mean more cash in companies hands to handle the crisis. Draw a loan against delayed tax receipts to run the government. It is far better than companies seeking loans from banks.
- Please ensure deferral of EMI, Loan repayment deferral by 6 months. Change the NPA norms of banks so that it doesn’t hurt their balance sheets.
- Please Exempt all forms of tax on income for salaries paid in March and April for companies that aren’t retrenching any staff or daily wagers so as to benefit companies. The employee will get his net of taxes salary and company benefits with the tax part.
- Please Remove all taxes on aviation fuel. Make travel & tourism a priority sector. Make GST rate at ZERO.
- Please Enable promoters to buy own shares from market with no tax implications to stabilise the stock market. The stock market rout can have a cascading effect on banking too.
- Please Ensure that the stupid ammendments to Section 35(2AB) under the Income Tax Act are reversed. They enable companies to invest in science and research. But an ammendment in 2017 reduced the deduction and imposed new conditions that made companies shy away from investing in research institutions.
- Health insurance must have a zero tax. Life insurance must have zero taxes.
- India is saving Rs.45000 crores as month on crude oil price fall. Convert this into a fund that can be used to fight the current Corona Crisis and later to establish medical and health facilities.
- Please Make all expenditure incurred on education & health institutions at zero tax. It is a sin and criminal for a country to be making money on educating a child and keeping them healthy. This will also bring down the cost of education and health services in the country.
India is still waiting for the task force to announce fiscal measures. With a 800 million work force, we simply cannot be sitting and hoping that things will sort themselves out!
Please do something. Don’t delay a solution the way we did in acknowledging Corona as a problem.
Please save industry and economy.
Yours truely
An Indian Entreprenuer.
