The forthcoming Budget should address some critical issues in our taxation policy. There is an urgent need for simplification and streamlining of our taxation policy to give the Indian industry a competitive edge in the international market.

WHAT I WANT BUDGET 2006 Ravi Prasad President & CEO, The Himalaya Drug Company
	"We need to move out of the policy stage"

Presently, each state has its own tax structure, making compliance and future planning a cumbersome and expensive process. Since the tax system of each state pulls in different directions, the process of business forecasting becomes more complicated. There is a need for some convergence on uniform and maximum tax on goods/services, which can be obtained by a national policy arrived at, through discussion and consensus.

Some key issues that we would like the budget to address include implementation of VAT across all states and a gradual phasing out of CST. Convergence in excise rates and doing away with multiple direct and indirect tax rates are as important as having uniform state tax levies.

Other key issues include simplifying rules across states and a roadmap on what the future direct and indirect taxation policy will look like. The Budget should also ensure infrastructure plans and projects of national importance are completed on priority and within budgeted costs.

The "need of the hour" is to simplify the entire process of tax laws and tax administration in order to make Indian industry more competitive, profitable and ensure that business planning becomes more predictable. The Budget must be made a non-event and must not be used for announcing key policies and taxes. It must present a general blueprint for the industry and economy, with key challenges for growth and plans to address such challenges. It is also important that basic civic amenities are made available to all. The government needs to have the political will to implement programmes for the improvement of health, education, housing and overall quality of life of the population, in order to improve the quality of workforce.

The finance minister must have a clear strategy for infrastructure development. This needs to include ports, airports, roads and availability of power. We need to move out of the policy stage into the action and implementation mode.