Budget 2012 stereotyped, say North Eastern industries

Industry chambers of the NE have termed the union Budget presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday as a 'stereotype' with nothing specific in it for Assam and the North Eastern region.

Federation of Industry and Commerce of North Eastern Region (FINER) said the decision to increase service tax and lack of stimulus for the industry would curb growth, which is already weak.

"There are no measures in the budget to revive industry. Instead standard excise duty has been hiked. There are also no sops for the North East," FINER Chairman RS Joshi said.

He said while the Union Budget has a plethora of schemes for social projects, the same is missing for industry.

"Already the cost of borrowings is high on account of RBI's repeated interest rate hikes. This has made it expensive to undertake fresh investments and now hike in excise will only affect the industry more," Joshi said.

The government is hard-pressed for cash and has proposed to levy additional indirect taxes of Rs45,940 crore for 2012-13 at a time when the industry is facing slowdown in demand, he said.

FINER, however, hailed the move to reduce securities transaction tax from 0.125% to 0.1% and said this would cut capital market transaction costs.

The tea industry criticised the union budget for failing to give any sops to revive the ailing sector.

North East Tea Association B Borkakoty said the body had proposed sharing of social cost of plantation by the central government but there is no mention about it in the Budget.

Social cost in education, health and food takes about Rs8 of per kg of tea made, he said adding the cost of production of the beverage was growing and lack of stimulus would make Indian tea uncompetitive in the global market.

On the proposal of raising the non-plan expenditure to Rs9,69,900 crore in 2012-13, which is 8.7% higher than the current year, the industry said this did not augur well for the economy of the state.

North East Tea Association B Borkakoty said the body had proposed sharing of social cost of plantation by the central government but there is no mention about it in the Budget.

Social cost in education, health and food takes about Rs8 of per kg of tea made, he said adding the cost of production of the beverage was growing and lack of stimulus would make Indian tea uncompetitive in the global market.

On the proposal of raising the non-plan expenditure to Rs9,69,900 crore in 2012-13, which is 8.7% higher than the current year, the industry said this did not augur well for the economy of the state.