Mukesh Ambani and Videocon chief Venugopal Dhoot wait as finance minister P. Chidambaram arrives for a meeting on the budget in Delhi on Tuesday. (PTI)

New Delhi, Jan. 11: Lobbying for a 5 per cent cut in corporate tax and customs duty, India Inc today unanimously asked the government to come up with a growth and investment-oriented budget for fiscal 2005-06.

In its pre-budget meeting with finance minister P. Chidambaram, apex industry chambers, including the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci), PHDCCI and Assocham, urged the government to lower income and corporate tax rates.

They wanted the taxpayers? base widened from 3 crore to 15 crore. They reckoned that this would boost revenues and cut the Centre?s revenue deficit.

Suggesting a slew of measures to enable the economy to move to a higher 8-10 per cent GDP growth, industry leaders urged the government to push radical reforms. This includes expediting the divestment process to mop up Rs 25,000 crore annually and removing the cap on foreign direct investment in sectors like telecom and insurance.

Top industrialists like Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani and Jagdish Khattar, managing director of Maruti Udyog, called for lowering customs duty on crude oil from 10 to 5 per cent.

Ambani also pitched for rationalisation of subsidies, especially on LPG and kerosene to make their prices market- determined.

Laying emphasis on fiscal prudence, CII president S. K. Munjal said: ?The Centre should focus on the revenue side and not the fiscal deficit.?

Ficci chairman Onkar Kanwar suggested downsizing of the government as recommended by the Fifth Pay Commission and the Geethakrishnan Panel to curtail revenue deficit.

Assocham president M. K. Sanghi said the budget should give a thrust to the infrastructure sector to spur growth.

Highlighting the need to boost exports, O. P. Garg, president of the Federation of Indian Exports Organisation, said the income tax facility for export-oriented units and special economic zones should be extended to domestic units exporting more than 75 per cent of their products.

Industry associations said textiles, auto ancillary, business process outsourcing, food processing and construction should be given incentives to enable them to become globally competitive.

?Prepare the annual budget as part of a medium term economic strategy for accelerating growth,? said Munjal.

He asked the government to come up with policies for promoting FDI and establish a development board with private and public participation.