No surprises, feels industry; something lacking, says govt

“There were no real surprises. We had expected it to be a populist Budget with elections round the corner,” said the deputy chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry (Eastern Region), Sandipan Chakraborty.

He also said that the outlays earmarked for education, health and agriculture seem to be well intended and would help in generating demand in the long run.

The industry leaders noted that while there was something or the other for states like Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Chandigarh, Haryana and even Orissa, the minister did not offer much to West Bengal.

The only announcement that might benefit the state’s tea industry is the Rs 40 crore Special Purpose Tea Fund (SPTF) announced by the Centre.

In the Budget, Chidambaram also announced a Rs 20-crore-grant to the Tea Research Association to upgrade its facilities at the Tocklai Experimental Station at Jorhat, which is expanding its activities to cover Darjeeling.

“We are very happy with the fund allocated for the Tea Research Association,” said the director of the Washabare Tea Company Pvt Ltd, Nayantara Pal Chaudhuri.

The steel industry in the state, however, was disappointed over the government not spelling out a policy on iron ores.

The industry has been demanding banning of iron-ore exports, as it would provide a boost to the domestic steel industry.

“I was expecting of some announcement being made regarding the iron-ore issue but there was nothing. Overall, there was nothing great for the manufacturing or the infrastructure sector,” said the managing director of Bengal JSW Steel, Biswadip Gupta.

The exporters of engineering products, many of who are small and medium entrepreneurs, expressed their disappointment. “There is nothing for exporters in this Budget except sympathy,” said the chairman of the Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC), Rakesh Shah. Shah stated that the Budget had no major policy initiatives to address the sharp slowing down of exports from 25.3 per cent in 2006-07 to 7.7 per cent in the first nine months of the current fiscal.

Members of the CII felt that the Rs 60,000 crore loan waiver of small and marginal farmers was the only real ‘big thing’ in this year’s budget, but were unsure as to how the minister is planning to execute the proposal.

“The waiver of loans may hurt the banks which can resort to increasing the lending rates to the industrial sector in the interim period till they are reimbursed,” said chairman of Nicco Corporation, Rajive Kaul.

Concerns were also raised as to how the government will raise money to fund the waiver, and theories of new cess or taxes on the industrial sector did the rounds.