Budget Reaction: Experts speak to KNN

Vinod Simon, Ex president, All India Rubber Industries Association: Average Budget from MSMEs point of view, though funds allocated to MSME sector but allocation of budget is not appropriate. Apart from that nothing much is mentioned about the employment or job opportunities.In short this budget will not change the economy in a big way."

Raju Goel, Secretary General, ELCINA: What they have tried to do is to encourage manufacturing of 3 items particularly mobiles and the mobile value chain, LED lights and LED value chain and the solar panels so that there will be greater value addition and manufacturing of these three product categories. Other than that overall budget is demand driven and socially inclusive budget."

C.Babu, President,TANSTIA: Our expectations were high from the budget as no GST relaxation for Micro Enetreprises, MSMEs marketing support not mentioned in the budget. however good thing about the budget is that the government will contribute 12 percent of wages of new employees in employee provident fund for all sectors for the next three years and has also given priority to infrastructure sector in the budget."

On Leather Sector: Rafeeque Ahmed, President, All India Skin & Hide Tanners & Merchants Association (AISHTMA): The announcement of dedicated package for the leather and footwear sector is a big plus point for the sector. Not only will it help generate employment in the sector, it will also help India realise its target of increasing its share of exports.

The new package for the leather sector is similar to the one given to the textiles sector earlier. Textiles did see positive results, we expect similar outcomes in the leather industry as well.

Jyoti Balakishna, President, AWAKE: Its a Pro Women Budget".she said keen to know more about interest part of SME sector in the budget especially expecting a substantial reduction on tax related to SMEs.

K Saraswathi, Secretary General- Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry: We are happy with the overall budget, the kind of support government has mentioned in the budget with regard to lending to the MSME's will help the sector grow.

Mr. Pankaj Bansal, Director, TMA International: The announced allotment seems as a good push for the sector. While the budget has done a fair job by coming up with the 3794 crore figure, it will be interesting to see as to how the schemes gets implemented on the ground.

With regard to the corporate tax, Bansal said that it is not going to make much of a difference.

The real concern that continues to haunt the MSMEs is the problem of easy access to credit. While other countries charge 1-3 per cent, the MSMEs in India still have to pay an interest of 12-15 per cent.  Also the banks are not very open to disbursing loans to the MSMEs, this need to be changed.

On Customs duty on mobiles to increase to 20 from 15 per cent: Pankaj Mahindroo, President, Indian Cellular Association: since most of the mobile phones are manufactured in India therefore it would be wrong to say that mobile phones will get costlier. Domestic production prices will not get affected.

"overall budget is good" , he said.

On Tourism Sector: Aashish Gupta, Consulting CEO, Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH): The budget has proposed to mark 10 cities and develop them into world class spots for tourism; this certainly is a welcoming move and is positive for the sector.

The push for the railways as well as revision in taxes is again something that is likely to benefit the tourism sector along with other sectors.

However all eyes were at the government to come up with dedicated corpus to promote tourism, bur provided that the budget comes before the upcoming polls, the government has focussed on the social sectors more.

Mr H. R. Vaish, Ex President, Udyog Vihar Industries Association on MSME

Medium, small, micro enterprises need separate handling; clubbing is harmful to small & micro.Separate ministries backed by financial institutions required.
Small and micro should be exempt from MAT.
On credit sales, reverse GST should be introduced for MSEs.
What can be reserved for MSEs should be done, will result in job creation.
Bigger units should get into manufacturing requiring large investments with focus on import substitution  and exports.
Duty structures should favour Indian manufacturing.

On taxation: Himanshu Verma, Employment Expert, Udai Foundation: The immediate assessment of the budget with regard to taxation doesn’t show any big announcements for the stakeholders.

While the corporate tax cap of 25 per cent for MSMEs with turnover of Rs 250 crore can be seen a welcoming move, yet it is not going to help the economy in long run.

On Gems and Jewellery Sector: Nitin Khandelwal, President, All India gems and jewellery trade federation (GJF): With the government hinting towards a Comprehensive gold policy to develop gold as an asset class; there is a fresh wave of energy in the sector.

This was a much awaited announcement and the industry has been holding talks with NITI Aayog regarding the same. While the announcement so far seems positive, the industry did expect some concession on the service tax.

Also there were eyes on the government to announce EMI scheme on 22K gold.

On Textile Sector: HKL Magu, Chairman, Apparel Export Promotion Council: The allotted amount 7140 crores to the textile sector is a big push for the industry comprising of a fair share of units of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

On Provident Fund Revision: The revised provident fund for all sectors of 12 per cent a good relief to all the sectors.  Whereas chalking it to 8 per cent In the case of women employees, is again a positive step towards the overall employment scenario in the country in general and textile sector in specific.

On Defence Sector: PC Tripathi, President of Defence and Strategic Industries Association of India (DISA): The new industrial policy announcement by the finance minister as a part of the union budget is a good move. Under the new policy if clusters are set to encourage the industry, it will help the entire manufacturing chain come together at one place.

Usually for the industrial unit to start functioning it takes time to obtain the security clearances, but with the government hinting to form identified clusters, it will help address that concern.

On Food processing Sector: Sagar Kurade, Ex-President of the All India Food Processors' Association:  The new figure allotted for the sector is certainly a good move by the government.

However it would be interesting if the government focusses on budgeting the industries and the MSMEs outside the food parks.

Over 99 per cent of the food processing MSME fall out of the ambit of food parks, therefore an approach moving away from food park centric approach is essential.