ICCC & CGI organise a discussion on Indian budget 2020-21

ICCC Board, VIPs, and Panelists 

Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC) in collaboration with the Consulate General of India organised a seminar and a panel discussion on the Indian budget on Tuesday 26 February 2020.

Road Map to a New India: Indian Budget 2020-21 drew unprecedented enthusiastic response from the members of the ICCC and invited guests.

In her keynote address, Apoorva Srivastava, the Consul General of India in Toronto, emphasised the people-first approach of the Indian budget. “Infrastructure, social welfare and agriculture are the main focus of the budget,” she said.

The presenters included Vandana Kumar, Joint secretary, Government of India; Arvind Vijh, Director, Deloitte, Canada; Chetan Sehgal, Partner, BDO Canada.

In her presentation, Vandana Kumar said the Indian government is working 24X7 to ensure that the momentum that the Indian economy has acquired in the last five years, continues and the recent slowdown is effectively tackled.

Arvind Vijh explained in his presentation in details the new provisions introduced in the budget that are aimed at both easing regulations and spurring investments in India, especially in the infrastructure sector, where a whopping US$1.4 trillion will be invested in infrastructure in the next five years, and an allocation of US$14.09 billion for transport infrastructure in 2020-21.

Chetan Sehgal, Partner, BDO Canada, in his presentation, spoke about the new provisions that have seemingly affected the Non-Resident Indian community. These pertain to by changing the benchmark from 182 days to 120 days. Consequently, anyone who stays in the country for 120 days or more in a year will now be deemed as a resident liable to pay tax, and the budget proposes that an Indian citizen who is not liable to tax anywhere would be deemed to be a resident of India, and therefore would have to pay tax in India.

Earlier, Pramod Goyal, President, Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce, laid down the long-term vision of the Chamber’s new leadership. “Our collective effort is to give our members and our stakeholders meaningful and tangible opportunities to directly benefit from our initiatives,” he said.

Vijay Thomas, Vice President, International Trade and ITC, ICCC introduced the evening’s program and said the unprecedented interest in the event was a clear indication that the ICCC would turn it into an annual event; and Surinder Sharma, Vice President, Membership Engagement; closed the program by thanking everyone.

A full house

Among the prominent participants were Sandeep Goel, the CEO of ICICI Bank; Praveen Verma, Retired Ambassador; Sudhir Anand, President of Indo-Canadian Harmony Forum, and Ashraf Ali, President of IIT-Alumni Canada.