Union Budget 2021: Exporters urge Finance Minister to increase R&D spends, reduce taxes

By Shailesh Yadav
New Delhi [India], January 29 : Ahead of the upcoming Union Budget to be presented on February 1 exporters' bodies have made a presentation to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and are waiting eagerly for a favourable Budget.
They had made a presentation to the Finance Minister for tax deductions on product development and Research and Development, Income Tax rate reduction for non-corporates, double tax deduction scheme for internationalisations and deemed export status to Indian industry under the global bidding of procurement.
The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) and Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) in their presentation to the government have suggested to bring a Double Tax Deduction Scheme for Internationalizations to allow exporters to deduct against their taxable income, twice the qualifying expenses incurred for approved overseas activities including market preparation, market exploration, market promotion, and market presence.
Talking to ANI, Ajai Shai, Director General and CEO, FIEO said, "We want the budget to draw a road map for export. Recently, only exports were in positive territory. The basic focus for the export sector should be Research and Development. Research and Development is extremely important for countries' export. We had requested that tax deduction on Research and Development expenditure, which has come down from 200 per cent to 100 per cent now may be restored to its original position as Research and Development investment in India is extremely low."
"We also want that Centre can provide duty-free import of Research and Development equipment and consumers to large companies who are in the field of exports. We are also focusing on the marketing expenses for the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). If we can create an export development fund this will help the SMEs," he added.
He further suggested that the central government may consider introducing a scheme in line with Sabka Vishwas (Legacy Dispute Resolution) Scheme, 2019 to resolve all disputes relating to Customs and Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT).
Dr A Sakthivel, Chairman, AEPC said for bolstering the textile and apparel sector, the government should provide higher budgetary allocation, mitigate the high cost of working capital, strengthen the brand value of Indian textile and apparels, ease access to funds for technological upgradation, remove the cap on benefit under the Technology Upgradation Fund (TUF) scheme, increase research and development into new products to suit emerging global demand, increase international technical collaborations, raise Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) limit in multi-brand retail and draw an aggressive export policy.
Echoing similar concern Karthikeyan Natarajan, President, and Chief Operating Officer, Cyient told ANI that Budget should focus on innovation in India.
"We hope the Budget lays down a clear roadmap for a higher innovation quotient and sets a vision to carve India into an innovative economy by 2050. This would require India to grow from 0.5 per cent of Research and Development spends to the GDP to improve to 1.5 per cent by end of this decade and reach 2.5-3 per cent by 2050," he said.
Rajiv Bhalla, Managing Director, Barco India also harped on research and development.
He said, "We are also hopeful that the budget will address measures essential for an accelerated digital transformation. This includes investment in Research and Development, automation technologies, skilling and development of a talent pool trained in digital age skills, which will help accelerate the pace of development."