CII South lauds a restrained Budget

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented a restrained, detailed and a good Budget.

However, a lot depends on how well it will be implemented, said Pradipta K. Mohapatra, former Chairman, CII-Southern Region (SR).

Participating in a retrospective analysis of the Budget organised by CII (SR), he said the Finance Minister’s 135-minute speech was the longest he had heard in nearly a decade.

The Minister went into great detail in many areas that were not looked into in the past. Two words: Nabard and entrepreneurship, were repeated several times. Nabard appeared 24 times, and entrepreneurship, barely mentioned by predecessors, saw multiple utterances.

While the Budget didn’t seem like it suggested concrete plans for the agriculture sector, there were many seeds sown through Nabard across a variety of schemes. However, execution holds the key to all of these, he said.

According to Rajshree Pathy, Chairman and Managing Director, Rajshree Sugars and Chemicals, it was a positive, comprehensive and mature Budget, with the Minister addressing larger as well as everyday issues.

The Minister started off saying it had only been 45 days (since the NDA had been in power) and hence one has to be realistic about people’s expectations from the Budget. “I think, he has done a good job,” added Pathy, who is also Deputy Chairperson of the CII (SR).

S Mahalingam, former Chairman, CII southern region, speaking on the IT industry, felt the Budget’s reference to subjects affecting digital India — broadband connectivity and incentives for the hardware sector — were “initiatives that we desperately need”.

According to TT Ashok, Managing Director, Taylor Rubber Pvt Ltd, foreign direct investment in the Defence sector will create more business opportunities for MSMEs, as they will have the advantage of a 30 per cent offset.

Manikam Ramaswami, Chairman and Managing Director, Loyal Textiles Mills Ltd, said there is a sharper focus on coastal cargo, inland waterways and ports, thus moving away from high-cost to lower-cost logistics, which is an urgent need.

The textiles industry, which is logistics-intensive, will certainly benefit from the direction on such cost reduction.

The important aspect for the textile industry was the Budget’s recognition and identification of the handloom segment within the handicraft sector.

There is a sharper focus on six clusters in the traditional handloom areas that do not make mass-produced handlooms but create expensive and exclusive products.

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