The union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had recently stated her suggestions to the state finance ministers with the inclusions of chief ministers, deputy Chief Ministers, also senior officers from centre and state.
TV Somanathan, the Union Finance Secretary greeted all the senior ministers and officials by mentioning the importance of the meeting as per the news release Performa. His regards were, “Most of the participants thanked the Union Finance Minister for financially supporting their states/UTs during the worst months of the pandemic, by enhancing borrowing limits, providing back-to-back loans to states and through special assistance for capital expenditure”
There were multiple suggestions given by the chief ministers as well as the senior officials in the same meeting which included, hiking of research and development (R&D) budget, digital services infrastructure status, income tax rate slab rationalization, online safety investments, hydrogen storage and fuel cell development were among the important topics.
While the personal income tax slab was also the talking point of the meeting, as the income tax slab recently saw a sharp jump of 5 per cent 20 per cent and 30 per cent and the surcharges of the slabs making it as much as 40 per cent.
The reduction of corporate tax was mentioned by the centre and has said that same can be done towards the income tax rate slab.
Apart from the income tax, the opposition ruling states have also mentioned the requirement of extension of the GST compensation cess from the current 2 years to the 5 years. They also demanded an increased share from the central government in the sponsored schemes of the centre as the revenue has been very much disturbed by the covid pandemic.
