The government must roll out Goods & Services Tax (GST) from April 2016 as it is likely to boost economic growth by 2 per cent, Godrej Group Chairman Adi Godrej said today.

“Other things being equal the implementation of GST (from April 2016) will add 2 per cent to the GDP growth rate. This will also benefit manufacturing and exports,” Godrej said.

Besides, Godrej said the Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) rate, which currently stands at 18.5 per cent, must be halved.

“This will enable companies to take greater advantage of the benefits of the incentives and invest more in manufacturing. This will also increase growth in GDP,” he added.

Godrej pitched for more incentives for the manufacturing sector in the upcoming budget.

“This is a very good time to increase incentives to the manufacturing sector which will aid growth. This will also encourage investments from Indian and foreign companies.

Future disinvestments and lower subsidies in the next year will help control the fiscal deficit to a large extent,” he said.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will unveil the Budget for 2015—16 on February 28.

Meanwhile, PHD Chamber of Commerce said that Jaitley must unveil measures to generate jobs, stimulate demand and spur investments to boost economic growth.

“The inverted duty structure, which is a major deterrent for manufacturing in India, should be completely corrected as domestically—produced goods cost more than imported ones”.

“The high transaction costs, both in terms of time taken and the money involved, are adversely impacting manufacturing competitiveness and overall business performance, the budget must provide provisions for reducing transaction costs,” PHD chamber said in a statement.

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