Chandigarh, July 05, 2019: Confederation of Indian Industry organised the Union Budget Viewing Session at its Northern Region Headquarters at Chandigarh today. CII Office bearers from Chandigarh, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and an esteemed panel of senior industry leaders shared their views on the likely impact of the Budget announcements on the Indian economy as well as on the Industry.
Sameer Gupta, Chairman, CII Northern Region remarked, Confederation of Indian Industry welcomes the Government of India’s mandate towards reaching a 5 USD trillion economy in the next few years. Outlining this roadmap, the Union Budget 2019-20 has given optimum attention to all major aspects of the economy such as enhancing farmers’ income, infrastructure development, rural and urban development, empowering youth and women, boosting start-ups & entrepreneurship, financial & banking sector reforms, leveraging the growth of MSMEs, faster adoption of latest technologies like electric vehicles, etc. CII is happy to acknowledge that many of our recommendations were being incorporated in the Union Budget 2019-20.
We compliment Hon’ble Finance Minister for setting up of Online Payment Platform to address the delayed payment issues of the MSME traders. It is also encouraging to note that IT exemption has been kept till INR 5 lakhs, which is in line with CII recommendations. For a long time CII has been advocating for revisiting the corporate tax rate. It is encouraging to note that Hon’ble Finance Minister has included all companies having annual turnover of 400 crores under the bracket of 25 per cent corporate tax rate. Promoting foreign investments by opening FDIs in aviation, insurance, animation AVGC and media etc. will boost inflows in the country, making it one of the prime investment destination.
Northern Region being a landlocked area, greater thrust given by the Hon'ble Finance Minister on connectivity, will greatly ease the movement of goods and people. Northern Region contributes 1/3 to national agri-GDP, initiative like Zero budget farming, extension of interest subvention of 2 per cent to fisheries and animal husbandry sector etc. will greatly boost the agri-sector. To sum up, I would say it’s a long term view focusing on sustainable development of India. It’s an inclusive, balanced & pragmatic budget.
Sanjay Khurana, Chairman, CII Regional Committee on SMEs & Whole Time Director Baddi Foils Pvt Ltd opined, “The Union Government has taken satisfactory initiatives and maintained the continuity of their previous term. I would like to make a special mention to the provisions for facilitating the smooth flow of credit to MSMEs which has been very encouraging component of this Budget.”
“We rank second in the world after the USA in terms of number of Start-ups and entrepreneurs and the newly announced budget is surely promising to further increase this figure,” said Dr Dinesh Dua, Chairman, CII Regional Committee on Entrepreneurship & Startups, and CEO & Whole Time Director, Nectar Lifesciences Ltd. He also added that the Government’s push to boost such enterprises shall surely create a huge room for job creations and mitigate the issue of unemployment to a great extent.
Sarvjeet Singh Virk, Chairman, CII Chandigarh Council & MD, Finvasia India Pvt Ltd expressed his views on the Union Budget and said, “The budget ensures more participation by retailers in the economy and also enhances the scope of institutional development by provisioning more liberal Foreign Direct Investments.” He also appreciated the Housing Development Schemes as launched by the Modi Government and added that they perfectly fit to a C-I-C Model, viz., Credit, Investments and Consumption.
Mr Harish Chavan, Chairman, CII Punjab State and Chief Executive Officer, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (Swaraj Division) also expressed that he is greatly impressed by the government’s ‘Gaon, Gareeb aur Kisan’ theme for the Union Budget. He added “Transforming of the rural infrastructure, agricultural diversification, focus on fisheries, cattle field & milk, ten thousand plus FPOs and Ease of Doing Business for farmers are some of the unique features announced by Hon’ble Finance Minister today.”
Manmohan S Kohli, Co-Chairman, CII Regional Committee on Tourism & Hospitality & CEO, Kalyan Singh Darshan Singh, remarked, “We hope that our nation would be abreast of its global competitors by this mature & well-balanced budget.”
Mr D N V Kumara Guru, Director - External Relations, Indian School of Business opined that, “When economy grows at a faster pace, the employment opportunities shall also multiply. I believe that both industry & academia should be supportive of the Union Budget and help the government implement its announcements.”