According to him the focus of the Union budget is to increase the taxpayers population by widening the coverage of the tax deducted at source (TDS) and an effective monitoring of the tax system rather than increasing the population of tax-filers. "The TDS administration should also be simplified as 38 sections, 26 rules and 39 forms governing the same is really cumbersome," he says.

The chamber also demands easing of tax provisions that hinder corporate restructuring. "Presently, the law denies tax holiday granted to export units when there is a substantial change in the shareholding pattern that also limits setting off of losses. This should be abolished," he says.

While demanding the abolition of the minimum alternate tax he called for the harmonisation of accounting procedures between the Income Tax Act and the Companies Act. "The provisions relating to depreciation should not be disturbed during the harmonisation course. We demand a higher accelerated depreciation allowance, say 60 per cent, to provide a fillip to the capital good sector.

S Swaminathan, the business editor of The Hindu and a member of MCCIs general committee, is of the view that given its comfortable foreign exchange reserves, the country can afford to repay some of its external debt to reduce its interest burden. "Indias total external debt stands at $102 billion and the forex reserves are at around $48 billion. "The multilateral debt offers flexibility in repaying the debt and the same could be leveraged by the government."

Swaminathan says the finance minister should leverage the other two favourable situations growing the food-stock position and the funds-flush banking sector to kick-start the economy. "A food-for-work programme should be implemented while creating socially-useful assets. The credit delivery of the banking sector is in a pathetic state. The banking sector funds should be made available to stimulate growth at the rural level by encouraging self-employment projects."

He says the time has finally arrived for the finance minister to involve all state governments in the economic reform process and also in preparation of the Union budget. "The budget should facilitate and motivate state governments to implement reforms."