BENGALURU: The Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry has given the Union Budget 2020-2021 a score of eight out of 10, calling it well-rounded.“The rural economy has been given a 16-point push to improve agricultural production, warehousing facilities and also logistics for movement of produce. The boost to manufacturing of networked products like electronics, mobiles and semi-conductors will help Indian industries apart from generating a lot of employment,” said FKCCI president Janardhan.

“FKCCI’s demand on giving more time for debt structuring has been fulfilled in the budget. The restructuring of income tax slabs will help the salaried class. Two points which we felt were lacking was that we wanted reduced lending rate for MSMEs and minimum labour wages to be set on par with neighbouring states,” he explained.

“Decriminalisation under the Companies Act, 2013 is a move in the right direction which will increase trust between the government and wealth creators. Delayed payments from larger industries is a major problem faced by MSMEs which the budget has promised to address effectively,” the industry body said in the press statement. The concessions for startups, boost for affordable housing and scheme for waiving interest and penalty of tax disputes were also appreciated.

Naveen Soni, Senior Vice President, Sales & Service, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, said the budget strikes a fine balance between spending to spur growth and maintaining fiscal prudence. “Specially noteworthy is the attempt to enhance infrastructure funding by encouraging the use of equity and not relying too much on debt. The attempt to address the trust deficit by institutionalisation of taxpayers’ charter will create more business confidence and trust amongst tax-payers “.Archit Gupta, Founder and CEO of ClearTax, appreciated the move to remove Dividend Distribution Tax, as it increases the dividends received in the hands of the investors.