Bengaluru, Feb 17 (KNN) Industries in the micro, small and medium sector today welcomed announcements in the interim budget to provide money for innovation and skill development.
Commenting on the budget, the cuts in excise duty on capital goods in particular, FISME (Federation of Indian micro, small and medium enterprises) President, D Gandhikumar said it was a welcome move as it would give a boost to the manufacturing sector which has been down the past two years.
“It will enable more purchasing and thereby revive the industry,” he said.
Even as he applauded the Rs 100 crore for innovation, he was happy with the Rs 1000 crore set aside for skill development, in addition to Rs 1000 cr kept for the same purpose last year. “The economy will start rolling again because of skills development,” Gandhikumar said.
Other welcome moves according to him are the announcements about three industrial corridors: Chennai-Bengaluru, Bengaluru-Mumbai and Amritsar-Kolkata; and waiver or rebate of tax on exports.
However, FISME President expected more towards infrastructure development, although he was satisfied on the solar mission and energy front.
Also commenting on the Union Budget 2014-15, Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (KASSIA) said it was a well-crafted budget.
“The interim budget has been embellished to serve as a brief report of UPA Government for the decade and the recovering economy became handy to give an optimistic presentation,” Vice President KASSIA, C M Rajamane said.
He feels that the entire MSE sector has to be content with the by-product benefits conferred on other segments.
“Although the interim budget normally does not contain proposals touching direct taxes, a few token concessions shown will have marginal benefits to small scale sector,” Rajamane said.
The emphasis given to skill development one of basic input deficiencies to small scale industries, he said, deserves special mention.
“The recovery of 140 million from poverty line will provide an assured market of several mass consumption items and consumer durables. The spin off benefits arising out of Excise duty reduction on Capital Investment and automobiles will give a chance to improve capacity utilisation in small industries.”
KASSIA, he said welcomed the reduction of excise duty in all machinery, mechanical, foundry, electrical and electronic which is very timely in current difficult context.
The removal of Service Tax will help rice based units ready to process and ready to eat food items.
Calling the budget a confidence building document, “We appreciate the gesture of the Finance Minister when he exhorts focus on manufacturing particularly mentioning that all tax Central and State that go into an exported product is waived or rebated. Strict adherence to this task will render many of our products competitive in the global market.
