Industry chambers broadly welcomed Narendra Modi Government’s first Union Budget, terming it “progressive”.

Chandrajit Banerjee, Director-General of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), said, “A roadmap for fiscal consolidation and fiscal prudence has been defined to bring fiscal deficit to 3 per cent by 2016-17, with stress on reviving all sectors of the economy, including agriculture, power and infrastructure, manufacturing, and services.”

Sidharth Birla, President of FICCI, said “The Government has lowered the eligibility limits for investments to get the benefit of investment allowance from ₹100 crore to ₹25 crore. This will give encouragement to the SME sector that is a key contributor to employment generation.”

Welcoming the Budget, Assocham said, “The Budget is growth enabler and had given a ‘Rurban’ push through allocations for 100 Smart Cities, ₹50,000 crore support for municipal debt management for infrastructure and ‘Ease of Doing Business’ by relaxing limits for FDI in key sectors like defence and insurance.”

Sharad Jaipuria, President of PHD Chamber President, said, “Steps undertaken to revive SEZs would help to rejuvenate the investment cycle and facilitation to manufacturing units to sell their products through retail and e-commerce would reduce the selling cost and benefit both manufacturers and consumers.”

S Shandilya, CEO of Eicher Tractor Ltd, said “The Budget is broad-based but not very exciting; until we see the fine-print we cannot say anything on it. Some commendable announcements were made but again it should happen on the ground, things don’t work just by making statements.”

When you do not concentrate on major initiatives and focus on small things obviously market will not react positively, he said when asked on the dip in the Sensex.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW