Mr. Srinivash Singh, Managing Director, McNally Bharat Engineering

With the GDP expected to grow at 7.5 % this year and the government’s continuing emphasis on infrastructure growth in power, roads, railways, ports & airports, the prospects for EPC companies & manufacturers of capital goods look bullish for next year as well. We would suggest to the Honorable Finance Minister to consider the following in this year’s budget.

(1) Excise duty paid for construction material for civil & structural construction work should be CENVATABLE to reduce project costs.
(2) 50% of excise duty paid on machinery used in manufacture is adjusted against CENVAT paid on the output from such machinery. However, in case of Plants installed, CENVAT cannot be adjusted against the excise duty paid on the Plant installation. This anomaly needs to be corrected, since a plant operator is like a manufacturer and the Plant is like a piece of machinery, which produces the goods.
(3) For interstate movement of Construction equipment & materials to other construction sites, Waybill is required to be procured for many states. This should be abolished. Since the equipment and materials are for own use and not for sale, waybill is unnecessary and it causes unnecessary delays in transit, and loss of revenue.
(4) Works contract tax of 2% should be abolished, as it will bring down the cost of executing Infrastructure projects.
(5) VAT on general goods is currently 12.5%. This should be reduced to 4% as applicable for other items to bring down the cost of a Project.

Mr. Srinivash Singh