BUDGET "GROWTH FOCUSED" ,EMPHASIS ON CORE SECTOR -BANGALORE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY

Bengaluru, February 2,(VNI) The Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC) today termed the union budget of 2017-18 as a “Growth Focused Budget” that will boost India’s macroeconomics despite the crises in the global economy and political uncertainties.The budget lays specific emphasis on the development of core sectors especially infrastructure, Agriculture, Rural sectors for the next two years, the chamber said in a statement. Thyagu Valliappa, President, BCIC said: “A hallmark of Finance Minister Aurn Jaitley’s budget is the pledge to contain Fiscal Deficit for FY17-18 at 3.2 percent of GDP and further reduce it to 3 percent in the next two years without compromising on government spending on development schemesThe Budget has a slew of policy oriented announcements and targets set for infrastructure, manufacturing, digital India, public sector, social sector, finance and corporate and income tax reforms, 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 next the two years”. He further added that this budget is focused on “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 huge capex push to inter-city, metro railway, road connectivity and development of Tier-II airports will radically improve the mobility of masses.” “Labour reforms are yet another important announcement in this budget. We need to see how the implementation is effected to bring in reforms in this critical sector. The focus on Skill development and emphasis on college education is also welcome.” K R Sekar, Chairman, State Taxes Committee, BCIC and Partner, Global Business Tax, Deloitte said: “We expected corporate tax cut for the big companies, but that has not come through despite the Government promising to reduce it to 25 % in the next two years. However, reduction in the rate of tax for SMEs from existing 30 to 25% is the most welcome measure. This significant change is made to provide the necessary boost to the MSME sector. If MSMEs are able to source lower credit it will provide the necessary impetus to job creation which is very crucial at this point of time. ”The abolition of FIPB is a step in the right direction and given the current state of Indian economy it sends all the right signals to overseas investors. Sekhar said. “The Finance Minister's announcement to confiscate assets of loan evaders is a very encouraging feature as this will radically reduce NPAs which is eating into government exchequer. Similar is the announcement of cleaning up of political funding. Both these are path-breaking and will radically enhance brand equity of India not only with the domestic but also overseas investors.” 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 proposed GST rollout post June 2017.