Kolkata, Feb 29 (KNN) This is a budget which gives emphasis to agricultural sector but does not provide any benefit for MSMEs which provides maximum employment opportunities, said Federation of Small & Medium Industries (FOSMI).

The West Bengal MSMEs expressed disappointed with the General Budget and said, “We had lots of expectation from the new government.”

However, the industry association welcomes 8.33% payment towards EPFO for new employees contribution for three years.

For existing employees no such benefit is given in this Budget which will have a negative impact on the industries and lead to discrimination amongst the employees, it added.

Taxing recognized provident funds including EPF (40% of the corpus fund will be tax free) will disappoint nearly 6 crore people, said FOSMI President Biswanath Bhattacharya.

‘The increase of turnover limit from 1 crore to 2 crore for MSMEs having a book profit of 8% will not require to maintain books of account or audit. This is very much impractical as there is hardly any MSME unit making a profit of 8% and above,” he said.

He welcomes Rs15000 crore allocations for interest subvention for agri loans but expressed disappointment over no such measures for the MSMEs.

FOSMI welcomed Finance Minister’s desire to implement GST reform measures pending before parliament.

The Kolkata based association said there is no specific effort to include non-tax payers in the tax structure who are evading taxes, on the other hand the tax burden is increasing on the existing tax payers.

Further, FOSMI said, “Increase of Service Tax and price of Coal will lead to increase in the price of all inputs of production / services including electricity.”

Overall the budget is mixed budget and is not pro-reform as expected, it said. (KNN Bureau)