From tax cuts to IPR system to promote research, pharma industry demands from finance minister

Budget 2024 Expectations: The domestic pharmaceutical industry wants the government to take steps to reduce corporate tax and create an effective intellectual property rights (IPR) system to promote research and development (R&D) in the pharma sector in the upcoming budget. This will boost the growth of the pharma industry in the country. Anil Matai, Director General of the Organization of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI), while placing the pharma industry’s demand regarding the budget, said that the government should take steps to promote research and development. For this, multinational companies should be given incentives related to research and development and the sector should be given concessions in corporate tax.

OPPI DG said that due to higher risk, we suggest that the scope of Section 115BAB of the Income Tax Act, 1961 should be extended to companies that are engaged only in pharma research and development. Such companies should be given a deduction of 200 percent on research and development expenses. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has completed discussions with various stakeholders, including representatives from the industry and social sector, as part of the process of preparing the budget.

Also read: Budget 2024 Expectation: From tax cut to fee structure, what is the industry’s demand from the Finance Minister

The new government will present its first full budget on July 23

The Finance Minister will present her 7th budget on July 23. This will be the first full budget of the Narendra Modi 3.0 government. This budget will pave the way for a ‘developed India’ by 2047. Last month, President Draupadi Murmu, while addressing the joint session of Parliament, had said that many historic steps and big economic decisions will be taken in the upcoming budget session. In her first address to the joint session of Parliament after the formation of the 18th Lok Sabha, the President had said that this budget will be an effective document of the government’s far-reaching policies and forward-looking vision. She had said that along with big economic and social decisions, many historic steps will also be seen in this budget.

Pre-budget consultation ran from 19 June to 5 July

The Finance Ministry said in a statement that the pre-budget consultation for the General Budget 2024-25 began on June 19 and ended on July 5, 2024. More than 120 people from 10 stakeholder groups participated during the deliberations. These included experts and representatives from trade organizations, education and health sector, employment and skills, micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), trade and services, industry, financial sector and capital markets and infrastructure, energy and urban sector, apart from farmer associations and agricultural economists. These meetings, chaired by the Finance Minister, were attended by Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Choudhary, Finance Secretary and Expenditure Secretary T V Somanathan, Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary Tuhin K Pandey, Financial Services Secretary Vivek Joshi and Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra, among others.