While industry associations welcomed the Union Budget announcements, they seem to be equally anxious in drawing the attention of the Government to assign one power project to Tamil Nadu.

“The growth of the State is entirely dependent on the power situation. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in his budget presentation, announced 5 ultra mega projects. We want to impress upon the government the need to assign one such project to TN,” Texpreneurs’ Forum Secretary D Prabhu told BusinessLine .

It is a good budget with focus on growth. The Government has understood the issues faced by the industry. At this juncture, it is but natural to take up this demand with the Government as the State leads in industrial development. It would be difficult to sustain the growth momentum without additional power, he said.

Terming the budget a pragmatic one, Tirupur Exporters’ Association President A Sakthivel said the announcement on commissioning the second unit of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Station in 2015-16 would help the State in a big way.

He was particularly happy to note that the association’s long-pending requisition for exempting the CETP (Common Effluent Treatment Plants) from the purview of service tax was addressed in this budget. This will benefit the knitwear industry in particular, he said.

He further pointed out that with the increase in service tax to 14 per cent (from 12.36 per cent), the service tax refund given to knitwear garment exporting units will have to be hiked from the existing 0.18 per cent to 0.75 per cent.

While welcoming the allocation of a fund separately for TUFS Scheme, Sakthivel said IETPs and CETPs should be included under TUF scheme.

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