The Union general budget has been termed progressive by many in the industry sector. The CII northern region chairman Shreekant Somany appreciated keeping the fiscal deficit target under control at 3.9 per cent in 2015-16 and projected deficit at 3.5 per cent in 2016-17 in the backdrop of additional fiscal burden due to the 7th Central Pay Commission recommendations, OROP and higher devolution to states on account of 14th Finance Commission reward.
He stated, “The overall focus of this year’s budget was on transforming India, which will impact the lives of citizens. Structural bottleneck is one of the major constraints to ease of doing business in India. This budget made an endeavour to address this through some well thought out reform strategies. The reform agenda demonstrates the government’s intent to ease business environment in the country. In line with CII recommendations, a lot of emphasis has been laid on the dispute resolution mechanism. Constitution of a High level Committee chaired by Revenue Secretary to oversee fresh cases where assessing officer applies the retrospective amendment is welcome,” he said.
PHD Chamber president Mahesh Gupta said that the focus of the general budget on rural India will go a long way in demand generation in the economy while boosting overall growth, said. He stated, “We are happy that our suggestion to increase deduction on exemption for Income Tax on interest paid on home loans has been partly accepted as there is an additional exemption of Rs 50,000 for housing loans up to Rs. 35 lakh, provided cost of house is not above Rs. 50 lakh which will give a boost to the real estate sector,” he said.
Pacific group executive director Abhishek Bansal said, “The budget was a mixed bag for the real estate industry. For buyers, the first time home buyers will get an additional deduction of Rs 50,000 on interest for loans up to Rs 35 lakh this can be one of the encouraging factors for first time buyers. Though there is still a lot to do for bringing the sector back on track,” he said.