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Our Bureau

New Delhi , Jan. 9

Corporate India today met the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, as a pre-Budget exercise and sought Government support in cross-border acquisitions.

The demand comes in view of the Tatas' bid to acquire UK-based Corus and Videocon's bid for Daewoo Electronics in Korea.

"We want the Government to extend political, social and financial incentives while Indian companies try for acquisitions abroad," the President of Assocham, Mr Anil K. Aggarwal, told reporters after the meeting.

The Videocon Chairman, Mr V.N. Dhoot, too is understood to have pitched for some benefits for Indian companies, which are in the process of going global while the Tata group Chairman, Mr Ratan Tata, nodded when Mr Dhoot raised the matter with Mr Chidambaram.

Corporate tax

The industry also urged for reducing the corporate tax rate from the present 30 per cent to 25 per cent.

The other demands include continuation of tax exemptions on R&D activities beyond 2007, by another 10 years. The industry said the exemptions should be extended to other industries as well, besides pharma and automobiles and also for rationalisation of fringe-benefit tax.

The Assocham President had also suggested that personal income-tax exemption on investment of up to Rs 1 lakh in long-term infrastructure instruments while for the biotechnology sector the Biocon chief, Ms Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, is understood to have asked for withdrawal of service tax on clinical trials and duty exemptions on kits of infectious diseases on the lines of HIV kits.

For the telecom sector, the Bharti Enterprises Chairman, Mr Sunil Mittal, urged for a uniform tax structure be imposed on different components and parts of the telecom industry.

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