Ludhiana residents offer mixed views on Budget

LUDHIANA: While the Budget announced on Saturday failed to live up to the expectations and demands of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), reduction in income tax slabs and other announcements by Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to encourage manufacturing and automatic refund of export duties are being welcomed by city businessmen.
One of the major announcements that is being especially hailed by the business community is making stricter rules for certificate of origin in case of import of goods that, according to them, is going to tighten noose on the easy and free flows of cheap Chinese imports. The decision to bring schemes for settlement of income tax disputes is too being cheered by the businessmen.
Speaking to TOI, president of Chamber of Industrial and Commercial Undertakings (CICU) Upkar Singh Ahuja said, “If we talk of any kind of direct relief for MSME sector, there are none except for the reduction in income tax rates, but otherwise it is a well-prepared Budget and all announcements, if implemented timely, will eventually end up in boosting the growth of MSME sector. I think the most important step in this Budget that is aimed at ease of doing business is the automatic refund of export duties. Once into effect, it will make doing exports easier and cut off hectic time taken to process refund of duties. We are also hopeful that earmarking the funds for technology upgradation of automotive and pharma sector will give a big push to both sectors. However in totality, the decisions taken by the finance minister are likely to bring back the demand of goods and services back in the market.”
According to leading exporter and president of Focal Point Association Rajnish Ahuja, “This is a very good Budget. Though the finance minister could not fulfil 100% expectations of everyone, at least she has touched upon all sectors. Her statement about 10% GDP should not be taken as a mere statement. It will in fact be accomplished as earmarking of Rs 98,300 crore for the education sector and fund allocation for health sector will definitely lead to meeting this target. As far as industry is concerned, I think the biggest move made in this Budget is the efforts to put full stop on the entry of cheap Chinese goods into the Indian markets through duty-free trade routes by making guidelines regarding certificate of origin more strict and also hiking custom duty on 14 items that are mostly of Chinese origin. Besides this, the decision to bring out one-time settlement scheme for income tax disputes is remarkable as now we will be able to settle our years-old income tax cases as by just paying principal amount the case can be closed and penalties and interest waived off. I think all factors combined will have a very good impact on the growth of industry.”
General secretary of CICU Pankaj Sharma said, “The government has tried to do its best in this Budget by touching upon all sectors like manufacturing, farmimg and education. Reducing income tax slabs is a very bold step and will lead to huge savings for the businessmen falling in the eligible tax brackets. Easing norms for setting up and operations of non banking financial companies (NBFC) will lead to easy and more availability of credit for MSME sector in the market. The increase in the audit limit by five times to Rs 5 crore will act as a big booster for the MSMEs as earlier those having turnover above Rs 1 crore were subjected to audit that was not only time consuming, but also expensive.”