MCCIA holds budget viewing session, industrialists confident of growth, stability

A live budget viewing session was organised by the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) at their office on Senapati Bapat road from 11 am onwards on Monday

A live budget viewing session was organised by the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) at their office on Senapati Bapat road from 11 am onwards on Monday.

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Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the union budget for the fiscal year 2021–22 in parliament on Monday. After Sitharaman’s speech, MCCIA members and prominent people who attended the viewing session gave their reaction on the budget.

“We thank the finance minister for ensuring policy certainty and taxation stability in this budget. That is very important for encouraging the confidence of businesses and the investors. In an environment of consumption, private investment and exports not yet picking up to normal levels, the government had to spend, and we are glad that the expenditure budget is at a high of ₹34.8 lakh crore. It is especially encouraging to see a higher component of it being budgeted for the capital expenditure that delivers multiplier impact for growth,” said Sudhir Mehta, president of MCCIA.

“For the tax rates to be stable, it’s important that we have more revenues from divestments and asset monetization. Divestments in PSUs and specifically in PSBs and LIC are very welcome. It will raise resources while helping the sectors become even more efficient. While positive announcements were made for the industries including – FDI ceiling increase in the insurance industry, new parks for the textile industry, more than doubled the budget for MSMEs ministry to support MSMEs with schemes including the ones for credit guarantees and interest rate subventions.” he added.

Arun Firodia, chairman of Kinetic Group while welcoming the budget in his reaction said, “There are some welcome features announced by the government like faceless assessment. I would like this to be extended to all permissions and returns required to start a new business and run the business. Digitalization of interaction with government authorities will reduce corruption and improve the ease of doing business. Another welcome announcement is the correction of inverted duty structure. Government has announced its intention to support the electric vehicle industry,”

Firodia said, “Our request would be - motor and controller are being imported at nil import duty. Domestically manufactured motor and controller should also be charged the same at nil duty. Similarly, lithium battery cells are charged 5 per cent import duty. The same rate should be allowed for domestically manufactured batteries. Instead of scrappage policy, which would be unwelcome, it may be a better idea to levy a green tax on vehicles that are more than 15 years old. With the high cost of the battery, the electric vehicles are still more expensive than petrol-driven vehicles. My suggestion would be to increase the subsidy from Rs. 10,000 per kWh to Rs. 15,000 per kWh and continue it for the next 5 years. In order to induce people to use electric vehicles, a sizeable number of amenity spaces should be reserved for charging stations.”