FISME
to held discussion with Dr Vijay Kelkar
New Delhi. 27th Aug 2004.
The
Tax burden on Small and Medium Enterprises is disproportionately
higher in India according to Dr. Vijay Kelkar, Chairman of
the Task Force on Implementation of the Fiscal Responsibility
and Budget Management Act, 2003.
Speaking during a Seminar
organized by Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium
Enterprises (FISME) and Rajiv Institute for Contemporary Studies,
Dr. Kelkar, informed of studies that clearly established
that cost of compliance was unduly high for SMEs. According
to Dr. Kelkar, the proposed integration of excise and service
tax under GST regime coupled with uniformity of classification
and legislation across the country, would considerably reduce
the cost of compliance for SMEs. Dr. Vijay Kelkar also
headed two Task forces on reforms in direct and indirect
taxes earlier.
In
a memorandum, FISME demanded one single and low rate of Customs
duty in stead of three rates proposed by Kelkar to thwart
lobbying by cartels. According to it, the multiple rates
encouraged lobbying and induced inverted customs tariff. It
further highlighted the adverse implications of
ad-hoc tax concessions of Central/ State Sales Tax,
Excise etc. on SMEs. FISME demanded that the practice must
be put to an end and if need be the option of ‘promissory
estoppable’ should be exercised to check the menace.
According to it, the ‘responsibility’ in the Act enshrined
the responsibility in announcing taxation policies also.
While FISME appreciated
the concern of the Task Force on cascading effect of taxation
on Exports, it was disappointed that the same concern was
not reflected for domestic manufacturers producing but facing
global competition in India. According to it, the focus of
Tax reforms should be increasing competitiveness without getting
influenced by the market that a company catered to.
While presenting the salient
features of the report, Mr. Arvind Modi, member of the Task
force, informed that the GST regime would be based on
two principles: incentive for genuine tax payer by having
low and few rates and increasing cost of non-compliance by
collecting intelligence of evaders through massive use of
Information technology.
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Neeraj
Kedia elected President of FISME
30th March 2004
( New Delhi)
Mr. Neeraj Kedia has been
elected as President of Federation of Indian Micro and Small
and Medium Enterprises (FISME) for the year 2004-05 in a unanimous
election held today in New Delhi.
Mr. Kedia is Managing Director
of Muzaffarnagar based Chakradhar Chemicals (P) Ltd
– manufacturing Micronutrient fertilizers and he has been
spearheading the SMEnetwork Committee in FISME as Chairman
before taking over the President ship.
Spelling out his priorities,
firstly he reiterated his commitment to FISME’s mission statement:
To assist SMEs build the capabilities to respond to changing
external environment and exploit new opportunities by becoming
market centric".
He emphasized that globalize
Indian Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs ) require enabling
environment than handholding of subsidies. He stressed an
urgent need to address the challenges faced by the progressive
SMEs in three areas : reigning in the national and international
cartels of raw material manufacturers in steel, copper, plastics
, zinc etc. ; correcting the inverted import tariff structure
and ensuring meaningful participation of SMEs in the
negotiation process of multilateral and bilateral Trade
Agreements (FTAs) being entered into by India.
He also called upon the
SMEs to embrace the Information and Communication Technologies
in particular the internet.
Federation of Indian Micro
and Small and Medium Enterprises (FISME) is one of the chief
representative bodies of SMEs in India. Head quartered in
New Delhi, it is an umbrella organization of state level
SSI associations and product specific associations. Having
born of eight state SSI associations and NAYE in 1995,
FISME represents the face of progressive SMEs in India. Widely
networked nationally and internationally, its remains focused
on enhancing the capabilities of SMEs in achieving competitiveness
and market access. Kindly see more details at : http://www.fisme.org.in
.
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