'Institute fund for R&D, labs to meet global standards in Budget FY22'

New Delhi, Jan 23 A key exporters body has urged Centre to institute a new fund for R&D and testing labs for meeting the global standards in the upcoming Union Budget 2021-22.

According to Trade Promotion Council of India (TPCI) Founder Chairman Mohit Singla: "To meet the challenge on the trade front is the anxiety of higher incidence of non-tariff barriers (NTBs) which hits smooth trade badly."

"Therefore, Indian texting labs or facilities should be made at par globally with safe standards, so that it is accepted worldwide. Also the new standards such as Alimentrus Codex Standard of EU require a lot of investment to meet. Therefore, TPCI demands a separate fund or incentives for R&D and testing labs for meeting the global standards."

The Union Budget FY22 will be presented to the Lok Sabha by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1.

Besides, TPCI said the budget should announce a 'concessional credit scheme' for brand marketing globally.

Accordingly, Singla said that Indian products need to reach global shelves which is a huge cost to smaller and medium companies, largely still unaffordable.

"One way could be to provide concessional credit to meet the high cost; or tax deduction on expenditure incurred on marketing of brands abroad, etc. is the need of time to scale Indian products to the global shelf," Singla added.

Furthermore, the Council requested for an input tax credit on food sales as an added incentive.

"Tax holiday for 5 years for companies investing in infrastructure, including digital infrastructure,"

"For existing projects, capital investment to be extended up to 50 per cent accelerated depreciation to encourage modernisation."

In addition, it asked for special incentives to food processing through interest subvention, lower taxes, access to technology, amongst others.