Mixed response
to Chidambaram’s budget in Navi Mumbai
By Dinesh
Kamath
NAVI MUMBAI: After the finance minister P
Chidambaram came up with the 2013-14 union budget, there was a mixed response
from Navi Mumbai residents. Some of the residents expressed their feelings
about the budget.
A small time industrialist found the budget not so
bad. He referred to the budget as a good balancing act considering the global
economic slowdown. But he feels that the budget could have been better.
A small time builder did not find the budget too
good or too bad. He didn’t appear to be excited about the budget nor was he
depressed. As far as most of the builders in Navi Mumbai are concerned, you
will find mixed reactions when it comes to budget of this year.
There were some residents in the city who called the
budget a political one. According to them, the finance minister was well aware
of the forthcoming Lok Sabha election and so keeping this in mind he had come
up with a budget to keep the electoral prospects of the party alive.
The top people in APMC market were not very happy
about the budget since they thought that there was no proposal for upgrading
the APMC in the country. According to them, the budget should have been such
that it should have made possible for all the wholesale markets to be developed
as required with proper godowns and cooling chambers. They would have been
happier if funds were allotted to them so as to enable them to have mobile
laboratories for easy testing of food materials for providing safe and hygienic
food to the people.
Those who are on the look out for new homes seem to
be quite happy with the budget. They believe that the budget does provide some
comfort for home buyers.
The retailers and consumers appear unhappy with the
budget since there is an increase of one to six percent excise duty on mobile
phones above Rs 2000.
Business people were found pointing out both positive
and negative sides of the budget. According to them, reducing the number of
schemes to 70 from more than 100 + was a small, but a good initiative. They
found the budget related to coal production a good long term initiative. They
were happy with the budget that focused on renewable energy, additional
allocation of MNREGA, allocation to woman, youth and poor.
The businessmen were not happy with the policies
relating to divestment. According to them, considering the poor past
performance, the finance minister should have displayed daring and made huge
divestment decisions. Tweaking IT surcharges, they say, will result in
corporates finding it extremely difficult to raise capital and kick start
industrial investment and growth.
Some builders didn’t have good opinion about the
budget since the budget did not favour affordable housing – tax advantage for builders, a zero tax or a tax free regime
was not provided in the budget. There was also no reduction in service tax on
sale of flats. But they are happy about the fact that there is an increase by
one lakh as tax deductible from the annual income for first time home buyers.
This will encourage first time home buyers and they can avail of the scheme for
a long time. But these builders warned that the one per cent TDS on transaction
of immovable property of over Rs 50 lakh will only increase the cost of flats.
People involved in agricultural matters would have
been happy if an agricultural international business market was provided. That
would have made it possible to provide safe and hygienic food to the people. They
felt sad that the budget did not announce schemes for mobile laboratories,
awareness building and education centres.
There are some in the city who feel that the union
finance minister should have increased the tax exemption limit to annual income
of Rs 3 lakh in view of the cost of living and to boost consumption. A single
point tax collection would also do a lot of good, according to them, since that
would give a lot of boost to trade and industry.
The retailers and consumers in the city were found
brooding over the fact that they have been totally ignored while preparing the
budget.
Thus, overall, there was a mixed reactions to
Chidambaram’s budget among the residents of Navi Mumbai.
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