The Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry Federation (APCCIF) described the Union Budget 2017-18 as a positive one which made adequate allocations to all sectors with due focus on infrastructure and alleviating the plight of farmers.
Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, APCCIF general secretary P. Bhaskar Rao said a detailed analysis was difficult at this juncture as the general and railway budgets had been clubbed and no clear distinction had been shown between plan and non-plan expenditures.
Two good things were the conferring of infrastructure status on affordable housing and reduction of corporate tax by 5% (from 30% to 25%) for companies having an annual turnover of up to ₹50 crore.
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The increase in the corpus of NABARD’s long-term irrigation fund to ₹40,000 crore augurs well for Andhra Pradesh as it could get to mobilise from it the requisite funds for the Polavaram project.
Since excise and customs duties had not been disturbed ahead of the roll-out of the Goods and Services Tax, it would be difficult to draw a price curve of various commodities, he said.
D. Ramakrishna, Member of Board of Directors of APCCIF and MD of Efftronics Systems Pvt. Ltd, said much emphasis was laid on digitalisation of the finances instead of on digitalisation of all processes across the economic spectrum. He said the budget did not reveal how the government planned to deal with U.S. President Donald Trump’s protectionist policy on jobs which was expected to have a debilitating impact on the Indian ITES industry.
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‘MSMEs stand to gain’
APCCIF Board member and A.P. Small Industries’ Association President T. Parthasarathy said the reduction of tax from 8% to 6% on firms with annual turnover of up to ₹2 crore would be beneficial to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
The priority given to enhancement of skills was again positive for the MSMEs.
APCCIF Board member and IMIS Pharmaceuticals Private Limited MD V.V.M. Krishna said the sector-specific allocations would give flexibility to the heads of departments in raising funds for projects and that the budget appeared to be against the rapid implementation of digitalisation.
It rightly envisaged steps for opening of bank accounts and providing Internet connections to the masses before shifting the gears.
Chartered Accountants S. Akkaiah Naidu and A. Srinivas said Mr. Jaitley had left the income tax slab rates untouched as he felt that the goal of bringing more people into the tax bracket could not be achieved if the basic exemption limit was raised.
It was observed that of the 130 crore-plus population, there were only four crore income tax assesses. Provision of ₹10 lakh crore to farm loans was welcome.