Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Interim Budget fails to enthuse industry

Chennai:
The interim budget presented by Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram had a lackluster response from the industry who termed it more of an ‘election manifesto’ and a ‘moderate’ budget and some even questioning the fiscal deficit figures.
Interestingly, most of the chambers hardly had any post-budget discussions and a media briefing except Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and here too many of the panelists did not turn up.
During the post-budget FICCI panel discussion here, experts did hail the government’s achievement in agriculture by increasing the foodgrain production however they did not seem enthused by the finance minister’s claim on fiscal deficit.
Former Union revenue secretary M R Sivaraman said the fiscal deficit figures announced by the Finance Minister may seem good but a closer look at it may prove otherwise. “The fiscal deficit was contained at 4.1pc but there was no mention about the components which contributed to this Inflation,” he said.
The former bureaucrat also hit out at the Union government saying that while the state governments across India have budget surplus of 3 per cent, but the Union government is showing a deficit of 4.1 per cent.
The Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry stated that the budget was on expected lines. Being an Interim “bridge” budget, there were no great surprises nor disappointments., said MCCI president T Shivaraman.
“The excise rate cuts announced, though has come a bit late, will provide some respite to the manufacturing sector, more particularly, the automobile sector which is reeling under great pressure,” he stated.
Hindustan Chamber of Commerce said the Interim budget was moderate in approach as many new changes cannot be expected.
President of HCC Hasmukhlal D Vora said that the measure to decrease the Excise duty on automobile sector and allied industries to revive the manufacturing sector was a good step.
However, Real estate, Construction , infrastructure and health care sector is completely neglected, where, most common men will be benefitted, he said. He also said the move to exempt storage and warehousing of rice and blood banks from service tax was a positive step.

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