Tax reform, staff crunch top India Inc wishlist

So what is it that''s top of the mind of India Inc before Budget 2007 is unveiled?

Adi Godrej, managing director, Godrej Industries, is a bit concerned on reforms in the indirect tax system, while lack of human capital is bothering Nandan Nilekani, MD and CEO, Infosys. And who better to resolve their worries than the finance minister himself.

So these industry giants put forth their queries to the FM on the occasion of the inaugural of the TV-18 media centre at the National Stocks Exchange in Mumbai.

Nilekani said that the lack of human capital in the times ahead remains a huge concern. "It will be human capital infrastructure which will actually be the bottleneck as we run into shortages in all industries. National Knowledge Commission, of which I am a part, has submitted its higher education reforms last week to the prime minister. So I was wondering what would be the focus on increasing the allocation for higher education and creating the environment where more Indians can get education to get the job there are going to be there?"

The FM responded that for the time being it is difficult to spell out any numbers, and a huge amount of funds will have to be raised for this particular issue.

"Increasing allocation is one thing, but the capacity to use those funds and expand rapidly is yet another challenge. I think the Moily Committee report and the expansion of opportunities in situations of higher learning to accommodate the backward classes, schedule caste and schedule tribes. There is also the Knowledge Commission Report with its proposal to allow many more universities in the country. All this, of course, will require large amount of funds. Once the funds are provided, we must have the capacity to roll out the expansion in as short a timeframe as possible; I think there are twin challenges," he explained.

Godrej on the other hand voiced his concern on whether there is further opportunity for accelerating the growth rate to an early reform of the indirect tax system. He questioned whether there would be a one goods and services tax estimate in early date, so that a win-win situation is created - a virtuous cycle of lower prices, higher consumption and higher revenues?

The FM stated that this was a ''three-stage process''. "The first was VAT. We have successfully rolled out VAT throughout the country except in one recalcitrant state. The second step is to phase out CST. On that we have a consensus, but the details have to be worked out. The third step is GST, and for that the date is 1 April, 2010," he clarified.

Nilekani also stressed on the need to increase the pace of judicial reform and the speed at which judicial decisions are taken, he said that India only has about 13 judges per million. "So how would the government look into increasing allocations to strengthen the judiciary?" he questioned.

"At today''s compensation levels, not many top-notch lawyers would like to become judges. I think there is a constraint in the supply side also. We need to look at compensation packages for judges at all levels and attract the best talent, otherwise we would have first-rate lawyers but not first-rate judges," said Chidambram.