Industrial bodies have welcomed the Union Budget 2016 tabled in Parliament on Monday by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
Director – AISECT Siddharth Chaturvedi commenting over provisions on skills and digital initiatives in the Union Budget 2016-17 said, “There were high expectations from Budget 2016 from the skill development industry. To that extent, the Budget can be termed as a step in positive direction.”
Chaturvedi further said that another long-pending requirement has been addressed in the budget; that of setting up of a National Board of Certification of Skills. On the other hand, the sheer budgetary requirement for skill development sector in terms of capacity expansion, certification and mobilisation of large number of underprivileged youth remains much more than what has been allocated in the current budget. The budget also stopped short of providing concrete and definite service tax exemption measures for private sector players involved in skill development operations.
While applauding the Union Budget 2016-17 budget announcements, President, PHD Chamber - Mahesh Gupta said that Budget has touched the ground and its focus on rural India would go a long way to generate demand in the economy and give a push to overall growth and development of the country.
He said the nine pillars of Union Budget viz. Agriculture, rural sector, health sector, education skills and job creation, infrastructure and investments, financial sector reforms, governance and ease of business, fiscal discipline, and tax reform to reduce compliance burden are inspiring and will not only fuel economic growth but increase India’s competitiveness. The medium term goal of the government to abolish permit-raj regime is inspiring as it will fasten clearances and facilitate ease of doing business, added Gupta.
We are happy that our suggestion to increase deduction on exemption for Income Tax on interest paid on Home loans has been partly accepted, he said.