Chambers submits wish list to Union Finance Minister

 Vijayawada: Adelegation of AP Chambers submitted to Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday a detailed pre-budget representation covering sector-wise recommendations and taxation-related matters.

The delegation was led by AP Chambers president Potluri Bhaskara Rao, executive vice-president B Raja Sekhar, past president Muthavarapu Murali Krishna, and AP Chambers State Tourism Committee chairman RV Swamy.

The proposals focused on strengthening the economic ecosystem of Andhra Pradesh and India. Key suggestions included MSME competitiveness and access to finance, expansion of CGTMSE coverage, relaxation of collateral norms, and interest support for export-oriented MSMEs and manufacturing clusters, investment support for tourism, hospitality and food processing, investment-linked tax benefits, accelerated depreciation for capital-intensive infrastructure and facilitation of industrial tourism and value-added processing, incentives for digital automation, AI/robotics, energy-efficient equipment, and product-testing infrastructure to boost productivity and global competitiveness, encouragement for cold chain, warehousing, and multimodal logistics hubs in Tier-II/III cities to reduce freight costs and improve export readiness.

The delegation also raised important GST-related issues, including simplification and standardisation of GST investigations, especially under Section 67, to prevent harassment of honest taxpayers and to ensure uniform adherence to CBIC guidelines, faster GST refund mechanisms for exporters, hospitality, and exhibition organisers to improve working capital cycles and support growth sectors.

Further, the Chambers highlighted the need to curb duplicated investigations across jurisdictions, avoid repeated summons on concluded matters, and prohibit repeat searches without fresh authorisation and fresh ‘reason to believe’.

The Finance Minister responded positively and assured that the suggestions would be examined in the upcoming budget formulations. AP Chambers expressed gratitude for her valuable time, constructive engagement, and continuous support to industry stakeholders.