CII seeks 100% tax relief for Indian Brand Equity Fund

CII urged the Finance Ministry to provide 100% tax relief to the companies contributing to the Indian Brand Equity Fund, set up in 1996. Te existing clauses were limiting companies from contributing heavily into the fund, said CII.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Thursday urged the Finance Ministry to provide 100 per cent tax relief to the companies contributing to the Indian Brand Equity Fund, set up in 1996 by the government for building the "Made in India" brand in overseas market.

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Pointing that the government was at present allowing 50 per cent tax exemption under the IT Act on contribution of less than 10 per cent of the company's income, CII said "to make the contributions attractive, it is seeking 100 per cent tax exemptions for companies contributing to the fund under U/S 80G of the IT Act."

The CII said if the forthcoming Budget provides this benefit then the existing level of corpus available to the fund can be increased substantially and added the existing clauses were limiting companies from contributing heavily into the fund.

"The fund has a corpus of Rs 156 crore which has grown from Rs 50 crore," it said.

The fund is working to increase the corpus available by attractive contributions from large corporate houses in the country, it said in a statement.

Last year, the government had decided to reposition the fund by involving CII to manage the working of the fund.