FICCI is the largest and oldest apex business organisation in India. Its history is closely interwoven with India's struggle for independence and its subsequent emergence as one of the most rapidly growing economies globally. FICCI plays a leading role in policy debates that are at the forefront of social, economic and political change. FICCI is the voice of India's business and industry. FICCI has direct membership from the private as well as public sectors, including SMEs and MNCs, and an indirect membership of over 83,000 companies from regional chambers of commerce.

FICCI President, Mr R.V Kanoria met with Finance Minister of India to present FICCI's out of box initiatives for pre budget memorandum 2012-13. The main recommendations from the presentation are:

• Privatise coal mines and Encourage Indians to bring their overseas wealth back to India by announcing one time amnesty scheme.

• GDP growth in the current fiscal may be in the lower band of 7% to 7.5%, with some significant

The famous economist Professor Galbraith once famously remarked: "There are two groups of forecasters- one, those who do not know, and two, those who do not know that they do not know." My readers can judge after the budget, to which group I belong. Meanwhile, since it is customary in February to make some calls on the forthcoming budget here goes:

Fiscal consolidation

The main plank of the budget this year is likely to be fiscal consolidation. The European debt crisis has led to a rethinking on the limits to fiscal policy. There is a global recognition of the fact that fiscal profligacy can have disastrous consequences. Among emerging market economies India has one of the highest fiscal deficits and debt to GDP ratios. It is important to recognize the fact that most of our emerging market peers have fiscal surpluses and some have both fiscal and current account surpluses. India's present fiscal deficit at 5.5 percent is certainly not alarming, but her current account deficit at around

The last year has been trying for local SMEs with the increasing cost of borrowing and fluctuating currency rates, making it increasingly difficult for smaller businesses to expand to overseas markets. Impending the possible changes in current government policies, we are hopeful that the government will introduce reforms for the MSME sector as they are the backbone of India's economy. At Alibaba.com, we believe government investment in the development of SME clusters across the country would be in their self-interest and in the interest of local business owners to stimulate economic growth and global trade. We hope that some sustainable relief measures in terms of subsidies for India's small medium industry will be among the initiated policies.

One of the most critical elements for India to reach its export targets is to boost broadband infrastructure in the country, which will enable Indian SMEs to be competitive in the international marketplace. While 3G spectrum has enhanced

• In our opinion steps like incentives, besides tax savings, for people buying health insurance and allocation of resources for public private partnership to increase health insurance penetration will be a positive move for the sector.
• Insurance business is a capital-intensive business. The industry needs capital inflow on regular basis for its operational needs. Foreign direct investment and capital market are two major sources of capital in any industry. Many insurance companies would like to invite foreign partners to raise their stake. At the same time, raising the cap to 49% will provide enough incentive to foreign companies to invest in Indian insurance sector. This will create required capital in the industry and help the sector expand much faster.
• India's march in the field of healthcare has been relentless and in the past decade we have established ourselves as a world leader on quality healthcare.  Raising healthcare expenditure as a sizeable portion of the Gross Domestic

"To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune, Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles, And by opposing end them"

The above soliloquy from William Shakespeare's play Hamlet truly sums up the fate of our FM when he rises to present the budget this year and address larger issues of the fiscal front, issues of fiscal deficit containment which would require very tough measures be it on introducing reform measures such as DTC or GTC to widen the tax base or decisively cutting down on subsidies on food and fuel that are a huge drain on the exchequer.

This is the fourth budget being presented by the UPA Government and this is probably the last budget which allows room for introducing structural reform measures without the overhang of a General Election which will surely drive the next year's budget towards populism.

The expectations from the budget on big ticket reforms will largely be driven by the outcome

The government should increase the present limit of tax exempt savings from Rs. 1 lakh to Rs. 1.5 lakh, the insurance sector, demands Deepak Sood, MD & CEO, Future Generali India Life Insurance Co Ltd. Here are a list of asks from Mr Sood from the insurance sector

• Encourage domestic savings by providing tax incentives for investment in insurance and pension schemes.

• Increase in present limit of tax exempt savings from Rs. 1 lakh to Rs. 1.5 lakh

• Allow higher FDI limits in Insurance (from 26% to 49%)

• Provide clarity on process and timelines for implementation and roll out of tax schemes like DTC and GST.

• In DTC there should be separate limit for life insurance as well as for pension plans. Also in DTC, life insurance plans should have same treatment as is available presently i.e. premium paid under plans where insurance cover exceeds five times of premium, should be deductible for tax purposes and maturity should also be tax exempt in such cases

• Improve credit off take via

Commercial Office Real Estate

1. The implementation of the revised DTC will have strong implications on SEZs. The industry requires clarity on the issues that may emerge, and how businesses would be promoted in Special Economic Zones.

2. Taking cues from the healthy growth of IT/ITES in Tier I cities and its effect on the growth of employment, the Government should actively roll out an incentive-based IT policy (such as STPI) for Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns as well

Residential Real Estate

1. Last year, a 1% interest rate subsidy was provided for loans towards affordable housing. The scope of this subsidy should be amplified and broadened to include a wider price band of budget housing to benefit home buyers, especially in lower income groups
2. More funds should be allocated to the Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) for urban housing targeted at the EWS and the LIG sections
3. Enact provisions for Special Residential Zones (SRZs) to incentivise the growth of housing stock at targeted locations

Retail

The forthcoming Union Budget comes in the backdrop of slowing economic growth, high fiscal deficit because of lower than estimated tax collections and runaway subsidies and amidst an environment where the government is seen to be stuck by policy paralysis and at best muddling along as far as the economic reform agenda is concerned.

The Centre's fiscal deficit for FY12 is expected to be higher by 100 bps over the budgeted fiscal deficit; this budget is therefore expected to have a thrust towards fiscal consolidation. If the slippage is indeed 100 bps, then to meet the Centre's FY13 fiscal deficit target of 4.1% as outlined in the medium term fiscal policy statement in the FY12 Budget, the reduction in the fiscal deficit required for FY13 would be around 150 bps of GDP from the FY12 level of around 5.6%. This is also important as the Reserve Bank of India has made policy rate cuts contingent on sustained decline in inflation, fiscal consolidation and progress on key supply-side reforms.