1st tranche of corporate tax reduction in next Budget: Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the government in the next few days will list out the exemptions to be phased out as part of its plans to gradually bring down corporate tax rate to 25 per cent, the first tranche of which will be announced in the Budget in February.

"I have announced a road map for direct taxation... (to) bring corporate tax down to 25 per cent by phasing out some of those exemptions. We are going to put in public domain in the next few days some of those exemptions that we intend to phase out in the first round," he said while addressing corporate leaders here.

"The first tranche of reduction of corporate tax... I hope to do it in the near future whenever the new Finance Bill comes up."

Jaitley made these comments while participating in an interactive session at the 'National Strategy Day in India' organised by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

The Minister in his Budget in February had announced the government's intention to reduce corporate tax from 30 per cent to 25 per cent over the next four years.

Jaitley also said the government has been able to address various tax legacy issues, including those pertaining to retrospective tax amendment, though two-three problems remain.

"Systematically, one by one, we have been resolving (taxation issues)... That fear of retrospective taxation has gone. Two-three of those problems remain and they remain because of legal reasons. I have publicly announced that we are looking for processes by which we can resolve some of these," Jaitley said.