Bengaluru: The Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC) on Thursday termed it as an “Agriculture, Infrastructure and Rural Economy Boosting Budget” that will boost macroeconomics of the country despite stagnation in the global economy and overseas political uncertainties, with specific emphasis on the development of core sectors especially the infrastructure, Agriculture, Rural sectors for the next one year.
K R Sekar, Chairman, Direct Taxes Expert Committee, BCIC and Leader Global Business Tax, Deloitte said: “The Budget has a slew of policy-oriented announcements and targets set for build rural economy, create jobs, boost infrastructure, promote SME sector, further integrate digital India, public sector disinvestment, improve social sector, agriculture sector and investment on Education, Skill development which we believe will spur overall economic growth as it clearly sets the right tone for the current fiscal”. He further added that this budget is focused more on consolidating “efficiency and transparency on the long term, ultimately aiming at improving and spurring the economy under the prevalent difficult challenging financial space due to demonetisation and de-globalisation effect. The budget has brought special focus on Healthcare and women welfare. The move to reduce PF contribution of Women employees to 8 percent and without corresponding reduction of employer rate is an innovative idea and will promote benefit to women employees”.
Sekar further said: “The huge capex push to infrastructure projects, smart cities, metro railway, road connectivity and development of Tier-II airports will radically improve not only the smooth transportation of goods and services and mobility of masses but also boost creation of mass employment in the nation”.
Welcoming the Budget 2018-19, Thyagu Valliappa, Immediate Past President, BCIC said: “With the implementation of the GST, there is growing confidence in the Government’s ability to take on difficult reforms in India. The improvement in investor confidence is evident from capital flows as foreign investors continue to bet on India as one of the promising destinations for investment.”
Thyagu Valliappa further said that the allocation of Rs. 17,000 crores for the Bangalore Metro is a huge boost for easing traffic congestion in this global city and indeed it is a very welcome measure”.
In conclusion, BCIC feels that the Budget tries to provide a stable, predictable and consistent policy framework to facilitate long-term investment decisions. The Finance Minister has done a balancing act by focusing his attention on all sectors without overtly hurting or appeasing any individual section of the Society and all the policy initiatives seamlessly integrate with the introduction of GST. Further the budget has all essential ingredients to achieve the desired growth rate of 7.50 per cent.
