New Delhi, Feb 2 (KNN) On one hand where the government has extended benefits to middle class & farmers in the budget, while on the other hand it has completely ignored the MSME sector, said Sunil Vaish, President of Indian Industries Association (IIA).

He said “IIA being an apex body of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME’s) though was looking for some announcements for the benefits of MSMEs yet as expected and being interim budget we could not find much in the budget speech of Finance Minister.”

He stated that the budget is good for middle class & farmers, but not for MSMEs as there is nothing much for MSME directly.

Though, he mentioned that MSMEs will benefit indirectly through enhanced purchasing power from middle class & farmers.

On sanctioning loan in 59 Minutes upto Rs. 1 Crore to MSMEs, Vaish said that this announcement is yet to touch the ground as availability of finance to the Industries is still very difficult and banks are continuing with their conservative attitude.

The association said increase in the income tax exemption limit up to Rs. 5 Lakhs is a big step taken by the Government which will benefit MSMEs indirectly through enhanced purchasing power of salaried people and small business man.

Chairman Taxation and Banking Committee of IIA, Sanjay Kaul said that in this budget Finance Minister should have considered some of the recommendations of IIA submitted to the Finance Ministry from time to time like enhancement of CGTMSE limit for collateral free loan Rs. 10 lakhs to Rs 50 lakhs and freezing maximum interests rates for micro and small Industries loans to maximum 9%.

He further said  that the RBI Guidelines issued for Rehabilitation of Sick MSMEs are not effective at the ground level mainly because the committee under the scheme is not working properly.

For the rehabilitation of MSMEs, IIA has been suggesting the Government to revive the functioning of State Level Inter Institutional Committee and provide a legal status to it.

The announcement of the Government for enhancing the limit for compounding under GST has been left to the discretion of the States, this should be withdrawn and made mandatory for all the State Governments by GST law of the Central Government, said Kaul.

A like quarterly GST returns by MSEs the tax payment /deposit should also be applicable quarterly for MSEs, suggested Kaul.

While, General Secretary of IIA, Manmohan Agarwal said that keeping in view the interim budget, it is a good budget for the common man as well as for the stability of the economy of the Country. This is evident from the statement of Finance Minister that the fiscal deficit target of 3.4% will be maintained in 2019-20 also.

Former President of IIA, V.K. Agarwal is of the view that the Budget should have encouraged the competition as the competitions only make the economy healthy.

Another, Former President of IIA, G.C. Chaturvedi expressed his satisfaction on the Budget announcements as this has given a much awaited relief to the tax payers.

Sharing the reaction on budget, Tax Advisor of IIA and a renowned practitioner in the city, Ashok Seth, said that increase in the Income Tax limit may be beneficial for the individuals but will reduce the tax base which as an economist I will not recommend.