Mixed reaction to Amit Mitra's Budget

There were mixed reactions from the political and industrial community in West Bengal on the Trinamool Congress government’s first major Budget.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee herself rated it “100 out of 10, given the financial constraints of the state”.

However, on the expected lines, the leader of Opposition Suryakanta Mishra sarcastically said, “I will not call it a directionless budget.This government’s direction has been to make unrealistic claims. This continues in the budget. They are blaming the Left Front government to hide their incapability.”

TMC's ally in the government, the Congress, too called it directionless.

“It's a superficial budget,” Pradip Bhattacharya, West Bengal Pradesh Congress president, said.

Almost all the industrial bodies have also given a mixed reaction for Amit Mitra’s Budget. While the Indian Chamber of Commerce welcomed the focuses on social sector spending, employment generation, skill development and SMEs, it said that higher taxes on motor cars, mobile phones, television will affect the consumer goods industry and are the major minuses of Mitra’s Budget.

Tejomoy Roychowdhury, president of the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce & Industry felt that the re-introduction of entry tax is a regressive measure and should have been avoided.

He also noted that no tangible benefits have been given for the promotion of MSME and generation of employment.

Harsh K Jha, managing director, Tata Metaliks and president, Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry said, “The Finance Minister had limited resources. The government doesn't have money to spend and expenditure has to be made to keep its image alive. So the only thing he can do is to plug the leakages, which he is trying to do. But these are small sums. What needs to be done is increasing the revenue base. The concept of a welfare state is very glamorous, but it invites trouble. A typical example is Greece.”

Highlighting the plus points, the business bodies welcomed Higher allocation for primary sector activities like agriculture, agriculture marketing and fisheries.

The increased exemption limit for payment of professional tax for salaried persons from Rs 3000 to Rs 5000 per month and measures like creation of employment bank was hailed.

The Indian Tea Association welcomed the exemption granted to the tea industry from payment Cess under West Bengal Rural Employment & Production Act, 1976 and the West Bengal Primary Education Act, 1973 for the period from 1st April 2012 to 31st March 2013. “This exemption translates to a benefit of approximately Rs 12-13 crores per annum,” an ITA release said.

Deepak Jalan, Vice President of Merchants' Chamber of Commerce and Industry(MCCI) was also in all praise for the Budget. “Mitra has taken a few initiatives to simplify and rationalise the tax administration like introduction of digitally signed e-return in place of hard copy, e-Sahaz Return in place of three separate returns,” he said. However, he expressed concerns that levy of Entry Tax may pose difficulties and delay in the movement of goods.

Ashok Aikat, president of Bharat Chamber of Commerce welcomed the proposal for setting up of a fish port in Haripurand the introduction of Krishi Ratna award for farmers to boost productivity.

Industry was also upbeat on increased plan outlay to departments like commerce (Rs 500 crore) for facilitating the growth of large and medium enterprises and agriculture.