The Hindu : Industry hails interim budget

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 04, 2004

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Business

Industry hails interim budget

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, FEB. 3. The Indian industry today welcomed the Interim Budget saying that it would further boost an upbeat economic sentiment. All the leading associations representing the industry including the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) praised the Union Government for its concerted efforts towards economic reforms.

Terming the Interim Budget a "watershed for the Indian economy", the CII President, Anand Mahindra, said, "not only has the fiscal deficit been brought down from the budget estimate of 5.6 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) to 4.8 per cent, it has also furthered the cause of reforms through specific measures some of which form the part of CII's reform agenda".

The FICCI President, Y. K. Modi, said various measures announced in the Interim Budget for fiscal consolidation, infrastructure, agriculture, financial and social sectors would further enhance the `feel good' factor. It also underlined the Government priority that economic reforms would continue. "Reducing the fiscal deficit much below the budget projections is in itself a major achievement in recent times. This clearly signals that the Government is committed for lowering the fiscal and revenue deficits and thereby help improve the savings and investments". He also hoped that today's announcement by the Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh, that there would be a strong role of financial institutions of India and the India Inc. would not have to rush to global market for raising funds at cheaper rates. "The setting up of the Lok Nayak Jaiprakash Narayan Fund and Industrial Infrastructure Fund for providing loans at highly competitive rates for power generation, tourism, telecom, airports, roads and urban infrastructure will give further impetus to these sectors".

According to M. K. Sanghi, the President of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), the procedural relaxation in the case of indirect taxes like E-filing, simplification of procedures, self-assessment and random checks in the case of custom clearances and reduction in the stamp duty rates would have positive impact on the industry and revenue.

However, the Federation of Indian Export Organisations expressed its unhappiness on the entire exercise stating that the exporting community was expecting a tax relief in view of the appreciation of the Indian rupee to partly offset their losses.

"The Finance Minister has failed to meet exporters' demand for abolition of stamp duty on foreign bills," the FIEO President, Rafeeque Ahmed, said.

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