Budget is Growth-Oriented, Reformist: UP Industrialists

Lucknow, Feb 28 (IANS) The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and industrialists of Uttar Pradesh Saturday complimented Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for presenting a "growth oriented, reformist and pragmatic budget".

The CII said by "focussing on manufacturing, ease of doing business, prohibiting black money and continuing with the ongoing reforms", the budget was set to create an "enabling environment".

CII Northern chairman Zubin Irani said the industry was happy to note that many of its recommendations as part of the Union Pre Budget Memorandum such as monetisation of gold, phased reduction in corporate tax, early rollout of GST, tweaking of real estate investment trusts and infrastructure investment trusts, increased emphasis on manufacturing by way rationalisation in custom and excise duties, focus on ease of doing business have been majorly accepted by the finance minister in this year's budget or at least he has given a roadmap on these.

Irani said the budget has been a comprehensive and pragmatic one as it lays out a vision for achieving higher and inclusive double digit growth rate.

Industrialists felt that focus on the manufacturing sector was of utmost importance for growth and to create job opportunities for millions and that the budget laid the roadmap ahead in this regard.

"India is presently ranked at 142nd position among 185 countries in 'ease of doing business' as per a World Bank report. Through the union budget 2015-16, the government has fortified its focus on ease of doing business to improve investors' confidence in the economy," said Somany Ceramics Ltd. CMD Shreekant Somany.

About the proposed GST rollout, UP State Council chairman and Jakson Engineers managing director Sameer Gupta said CII has been for long advocating for the early rollout of GST, and "we believe that the finance minister's commitment towards rollout out GST by April 1, 2016 is really commendable".

"CII believes that GST regime is expected to add about 1-1.5 percent in the country's GDP. As a movement towards GST, the education cess and secondary and higher education cess getting subsumed in central excise duty is a positive indication," he added.

"Understanding that a lot of Indian capital gets locked or remain idle because of investment in gold, the proposal of the finance minister to introduce a gold monetisation scheme will allow depositors of gold to earn interest in their metal account," Chopra Retec Rubber Products Pvt. Ltd managing director Kiran Chopra told IANS.