Expectations run high on budget eve

Trade bodies, manufacturers optimistic about sops

February 28, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 05:46 am IST - KOCHI:

The Union Budget may be an accounting exercise as several economists say, but the expectations of the common man from the budget remain high. Trade bodies and manufacturers remain optimistic about the sops likely to figure in the forthcoming Union Budget.

The Cochin Chamber of Commerce and Industry is one of the trade bodies keenly watching and analysing the budget. Chamber president C.S. Kartha said the priority sectors for budget spending must be agriculture, health, and education.

Multiple taxes

“The Union Budget 2015-16 should remove the multiple taxes that are associated with home purchase. As of now, home purchasers are required to pay service tax and value-added tax (VAT) on top of stamp duty and registration charges. Goods and Service Tax (GST) should be introduced in the place of these taxes,” he said.

In the context of recent issues, he wanted a regulatory authority to be set up for e-commerce sites that will draft a policy for taxing e-commerce transactions. There should be a special allocation for Startup Village in Kochi to nurture budding entrepreneurs with a simplified compliance framework, he said.

With the fall in fuel prices, the current account deficit had decreased significantly. The benefit should be passed on to the export-import trade, Mr. Kartha said.

M.P. Sukumaran Nair, Director of the Centre for Green Technology & Management, wanted the government to look at the under recoveries in the fertilizer sector.

The government has been neglecting the fertilizer sector, while taking a keen interest in clearing the under recoveries in the petroleum sector, he said at a pre-budget discussion organised by the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode, in Kochi recently.

Project implementation had not been reaching fast-track mode, he said. Banks were evading micro, small and medium enterprises, which contributed 45 per cent in manufacturing. The government had not seriously intervened to make solar power or natural gas available to the needy, he said.

Gold import duty

P.C. Natesan, a representative of the All Kerala Gold and Silver Merchants Association, said the gold and jewellery sector was expecting sops to reduce the import duty burden. It was time that the government reduced the import duty on gold. The government should come out with sops for small-scale gold merchants as their business was pitted against those running mega gold stores which used every trick in the book to woo customers, he said.

The National Electric Mobility Mission announced by the previous government assumed importance for the new government as well, experts in the field said.

The electric mobility mission envisaged sale of 6-7 million units of electric vehicles, resulting in liquid fuel savings of 2.2 million tonnes to 2.5 million tonnes by 2020. It would also lead to a decrease in vehicular emissions up to 1.5 per cent.

Electric vehicle sector

The electric vehicle segment too was awaiting incentives in the budget. If the government reduced excise duty and import duty on batteries used in electric vehicles, it would go a long way in popularizing the vehicles, George M. Cherian, an expert, said.

Call to introduce GST in place of VAT and service tax

‘Project implementation should be in fast-track mode’

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