Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), an industry lobby group, has called for removal of surcharge on corporate tax and raising of exemption limit of personal tax exemption by Rs 50,000 in its pre-budget memorandum that was submitted today to Revenue Secretary PV Bhide Elaborating on the recommendations, CII Vice-President Hari Bhartia said the forthcoming budget should focus on an investment-led growth by introducing broad-based reforms in the banking, finance and retail sectors.

We want an investment-led economy and are confident that there would be reforms. Reintroduction of investment allowance and infrastructure bonds are some of our suggestions, Bhartia added.

The Union Budget is expected to be presented in July, 2009.

Significantly, the industry lobby did not recommend any fresh stimulus package for the industry. Instead, it suggested the continuation of fiscal incentives given to different sectors for at least another year .

The government has announced three fiscal stimulus packages since December 2008. These include, reduction in excise duty by four percentage points as well as a two-percentage points cut in service tax.

CII also demanded speedy implementation of the proposed goods and services tax (GST) and rationalisation of other indirect taxes.

Revenue would be the major concern of the government and the new budget will be formulated accordingly, said Chandrajit Banerjee, director general, CII.

Other prominent industry lobbies like Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce (Ficci), Associated Chambers of Commerce and PHD Chamber of Commerce have already submitted their suggestions to the revenue secretary.