The Utkal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (UCCI) organised a discussion on the Union Budget 2020-21 after its members watched the live presentation of the budget by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday.
UCCI president Ramesh Mahapatra rated the budget at 6 on a scale of 1 to 10. He opined that the deposit and lending rates should have been reduced to encourage the money-flow and more investment in mutual funds, capital markets, etc. He welcomed the proposals in agricultural development, blue revolution, healthcare facilities on PPP mode in the district levels. He was also happy with the proposal of WSHGs to have storage facilities to preserve locally-produced perishable commodities. He also hailed the proposed Sagar Mitra Yojana.
UCCI VP (commerce) AK Sharda greeted the budget proposals as a whole and particularly those in the agricultural and MSME sectors. He also hailed the tax audit proposal in MSME to increase from Rs 1 crore to Rs 5 crore. He too appreciated the proposed tax holiday for the real estate developers. He also welcomed the Kisan Rail Yojna and the Agricultural Udaan Scheme. He rated the Budget proposals at 7 in the scale of 1 to 10.
Executive members CA Ashok Chinchela and CA Tarun Kr Agarwalla also welcomed the provisions in all sectors and hailed the huge allocation figures and wished that there should be proper implementation of the programmes at the field levels.
They also hailed the proposal to simplify the IT laws by removing several confusing and overlapping provisions.
EC member Brahmananda Mishra was particularly happy with the increase in import duty in respect of sophisticated healthcare instruments as this would be a boost for the “Make in India”. India would produce these instruments and multinational companies would invest in India in this sector, he said, adding that the proposed integrated farming in rain-fed areas would be expanded.
Joint secretary Sanjeev Mahapatra welcomed the proposal enhancing the insurance cover from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh in respect of bank deposits. EC member Priyadarshi Mishra, an NRI, lauded the proposed provision in technological development. He was of the view that the budget provisions would largely benefit the middleclass. EC member MV Rao also welcomed the budget provisions for all sectors.