PHD Chamber welcomes budget; to boost MSME sector; create employment opportunities

Chandigarh, February 28, 2015 : Welcoming the Union Budget, 2015-16, Mr.R K Saboo, Past President, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry termed it to be one aiming at bringing India on to the world stage in the long term.

 

The Budget encourages business and economic confidence with fine tuning of socio economic policies and announcement of some steady reforms like tax regime, proposals in social security, enhancing health situations in the country, said Mr. Saboo. FM has tried to touch upon all the major sectors including Agriculture, Rural Development, Youth Empowerment, BIFR, introduction of Bankruptcy Code et al, said Saboo.

 

Reforms in corporate tax structure; reducing it from 30% to 25% over the next 4 years, funds for infrastructure; rural infrastructure and agriculture credit; and  deferment of GARR by 2 years are good steps and  would go a long way to help Indian economy grow strength to strength in the coming times, said Mr. Saboo.

 

However, we were expecting more in MSMEs segment in terms of its scalability and financial problems. The high expectations on reduction in MAT have also remained unfulfilled. Increase in services tax can have impact on the ever expanding services sector trajectory as the costs of services are going to rise, said Mr. Saboo.

 

The focus on reducing the demand for overseas gold with gold monetisation scheme including gold coin with Ashok Chakra will help recycle domestic gold and curtail gold imports. Sovereign gold bonds will lead to channelize physical investments in gold to financial investments, said Ms Sudha Sharma, IRS (Retd.).

 

Echoing Saboo’s views, Mr. Amarjit Goyal, Senior member, Managing Committee, PHD Chamber said, “The budget rightly addresses the policy environment & provides roadmap for growth prospects.”

 

Roadmap for GST implementation before April 2016 is a potential game changer, he said.  Estimated GDP at 8-8.5% in 2015-16 is encouraging and we expect the economy to attain double digit growth trajectory in the medium term, he added.

Allocation of Rs 25,000 cr for rural infrastructure would generate the ripple effect in terms of employment generation, raising of per capita income and overall quality of life. It will lead to re-fuel rural demand and help manufacturing sector to attain growth, said, Mr. R S Sachdeva, Co-Chairman, PHD Chamber.

 

Focus on improving MNREGA with allocation of Rs. 34,699 crore is a step in the right direction as the scheme has helped rural demand to remain at the threshold level during the period of economic slowdown, he said.

Welcoming the allocation of Rs 20,000 crore through Micro Units Development Refinance Agency (MUDRA) Bank for the SME sector in the Union Budget, 2015, Mr. Dalip Sharma, Director, PHD Chamber said, “This shall not only enhance the much required credit facility to the MSMEs but thereby boost the growth of small businesses and manufacturing units also." The Rs 1000 cr allocation for support of Start-ups, shall help harness India’s demographic dividend as well, he said. This shall encourage entrepreneurship in India, and act as a catalyst to attract private investors by way of providing equity and soft loans, bringing much relief to the MSME Sector across the country, stressed Sharma. / (SK Vyas, Jalandhar)