The corporate sector largely saw it as a ‘fulfilling budget’ though there were certain minor misses.
“The kind of investments the Finance Minister has announced across sectors is historic. This will propel GDP growth to double digits,” said C.K. Ranganathan, deputy chairman, CII- Southern Region and CMD, CavinKare Pvt. Ltd. “I have not seen such a mega spending budget in my life. The government has taken us by surprise,” he said.
Welcome measures: CII
Hari Thiagarajan, chairman, CII Tamil Nadu State Council and executive director, Thiagarajar Mills Pvt. Ltd., said: “The infrastructure spend for Tamil Nadu is something which we were looking for and the State is going to benefit more.”
“The exemption of duty on steel scrap and reduction in customs duty is encouraging news,” said M. Ponnuswami, chairman and managing director, Pon Pure Chemical India Pvt. Ltd.
Duty on mobile phones
The budget has indicated that mobile phones could get costlier as custom duty on some parts of handsets have been increased from nil to 2.5%.
Sasikumar Gendham, managing director, Salcomp India, a Chennai-based major supplier of chargers to Apple for its iPhones, said: “This Budget has made phones more expensive due to withdrawal of exemptions on certain inputs both for phones and chargers. Let’s hope that companies take this as an opportunity to focus on increasing localisation further.”
‘Focus on logistics’
R. Dinesh, managing director, TVS Supply Chain Solutions, lauded the emphasis on supply chain areas, including the eastern and western freight corridors and the multimode approach for reducing logistics cost.
Srivats Ram, president, of The Madras Chamber of Commerce & Industry, termed it a growth-oriented Budget that promises resilience and recovery through stimulating broad-based consumption.
‘No additional taxes’
S. Chandramohan, group president – Finance and director, Tractors & Farm Equipment Ltd. said: “We were expecting that there could be additional taxes due to COVID-19. The Finance Minister has taken us by surprise by not levying additional taxes and its welcome step.”
‘Emphasis on clean water’
N.K. Ranganath, water ambassador, Grundfos Pumps India Pvt Ltd. welcomed the focus on investment towards clean water supply. He also pointed out the need to look beyond the capex and focus on the opex to ensure projects run effectively.
