Reacting to the Railway Budget Proposals for 2010-11 presented in the Lok Sabha today, the 24th February, 2010 by Ms. Mamata Banerjee, Hon’ble Union Minister of Railways, Shri Pavan Poddar, President, Bharat Chamber of Commerce, Kolkata, has issued the following Statement to the Press :

“The Hon’ble Union Minister of Railways, Ms. Mamata Banerjee, presented a pragmatic Budget, acknowledging the social responsibility of unifying the country through rail connectivity. The Budget also aims at improving core competence, besides optimum utilization of the rail assets.

“The Hon’ble Union Minister of Railways Ms. Mamata Banerjee must be complimented for laying adequate thrust on the expansion of the Indian Railway network by planning to add 25,000 route kms. of new lines to reach the goal of Vision 2020. The Railway Budget 2010 11 is in many ways an ‘Aam Admi’ Budget.

“Ms. Banerjee deserves appreciation for the bold initiatives to attract private partnership in infrastructure development and more importantly, her announcement to allow private operators to run Special Freight trains is indeed welcome.

“The decision of setting up of a Special Task Force to clear business proposals within 100 days demonstrates the seriousness of the Hon’ble Minister to complete the projects within a time frame. The proposal for setting up of a Centre for Railway Research at
IIT – Kharagpur and a Diesel Multiple Unit factory in West Bengal are indeed laudable.

“Adequate emphasis has been laid on improvement of passenger amenities like modern toilets, green toilets, e-ticket reservation vans even at Panchayet level, multi-functional hospitals at various locations, clean drinking water through establishment of bottling plants in PPP Mode and strengthening of suburban services. Safety and security measures to prevent accidents have also been covered and are welcome. Step up in the number of Duronto trains will add to the convenience of long distance consumers.

“The introduction of more freight corridors, the Dedicated Passenger Corridor through the National High Speed Rail Authority and establishment of more Dedicated Freight Corridors are all laudable.

“Additional Railway Linkages for North Bengal and the North East will solve a lot of communication problems in these areas that have remained remote.

“Ms. Banerjee deserves kudos for her announcement for the expansion of the Metro Railway Project of Kolkata to areas beyond those already demarcated.

“The proposal to reduce freight for transporting food grains and kerosene by Rs. 100/- per wagon is a positive approach.

“However, in the absence of increase in freights and fare, the Hon’ble Railway Minister has a tremendous balancing act to minimise the deficit. It is not clear how resources will be raised to meet the surge of investments that are called for in meeting the over ambitious expectations of the Union Railway Budget”.

Reacting to the Union Budget Proposals for 2010-11, presented in the Lok Sabha today, the 26th February, 2010 by Shri Pranab Mukherjee, Hon’ble Union Minister of Finance, Shri Pavan Poddar, President, Bharat Chamber of Commerce, Kolkata, issued the following Statement to the Press :

“Shri Pranab Mukherjee, Hon’ble Union Minister of Finance deserves accolades for unveiling a bold and pragmatic Budget taking into cognizance the need for fiscal consolidation and inclusive growth. In presenting the Union Budget 2010-11, the Hon’ble Union Finance Minister has taken a calibrated approach to move towards fiscal prudence without jeopardizing the country’s growth.

“The Union Budget 2010-11 has rightly focused on the macro economic issues.
The Hon’ble Union Finance Minister needs to be complimented for taking a balanced approach to tackle major issues of concern i.e. fiscal deficit and inflation, particularly food prices. Efforts to contain expenditure to a modest rise and projected decrease in fiscal deficit for 3 years are positive indications about the Government’s desire to contain fiscal deficit and debt as recommended by the 13th Finance Commission.

“The calibrated exit from the stimulus package instead of abrupt abortion is the best that could have been considered in the current scenario.

“Special emphasis on Green Revolution for the Eastern Region and West Bengal in particular, will boost the rural sector in this area. At the same time, the four fold approach to boost productivity in agriculture will be of immense value.

“Interest subvention for exports for one more year will indeed be a shot in the arm for the exporters, particularly the Micro and Small Enterprises. The boost given to private investment and foreign direct investment will ultimately accelerate the industrial growth process.

“New licenses to be issued to NBFCs and private banks will induce competition and is expected to bring improvement in the banking sector.

“The fiscal consolidation based on the recommendations of the Thirteenth Finance Commission has laid the initiative for inclusive growth stemming from more transparent and equitable share of revenue for the States. Up-gradation of IT for the Finance Department and Financial Legislation Reforms are praise worthy.

“It is indeed encouraging that 80% of the planned outlay has been injected for development and up-gradation of infrastructure and social sectors.

“Shri Poddar felt that restoration of Excise Duty non petroleum and diesel, and crude petroleum to 7.5% and 5% respectively was inevitable decision that the Government has to take. It is indeed encouraging to see that the Government would take some bold decisions in respect of reducing subsidies.

“Changes in Income Tax slabs will provide more disposable income in the hands of individuals.

“The only cause of concern to some extent is the increase in the Minimum Alternative Tax from 15% to 18% which is likely to have an adverse impact on Corporate Tax Payers.

“Increase in allocation for protection of environment through different schemes is a first major forward looking step towards sustainable protection of environment. The final moves on environment-friendly process and industries are also welcome.

Reacting to the West Bengal Budget Proposals for 2010-11, presented to the State Assembly on March 22, 2010 by Dr. Asim Dasgupta, Hon’ble Minister of Finance, Government of West Bengal, Shri Pavan Poddar, President, Bharat Chamber of Commerce, Kolkata, issued the following Statement to the Press :

“The West Bengal Budget for 2010-11 presented by Dr. Asim Dasgupta, Hon’ble Minister of Finance has addressed the twin issues of spiraling food inflation and need for employment generation specially for the disadvantaged sections of the society. Continued thrust on social welfare, poverty alleviation and agriculture and horticulture and small scale industries in the State has been also provided.

“The Hon’ble Minister must be complimented for responding to the Chamber’s suggestions for streamlining the procedures under the VAT Act as also removing the obstacles faced by the dealers. Reduction of tax on a host of items is a step in the right direction. Time bound refund to exporters and on – line submission and processing of application will go a long way in bringing about much needed speed and transparency in the refund process.

“Allowing input tax credit on coal used as raw material in the manufacturing process in Iron and Steel industry will indeed help the iron and steel sector in our State. Similarly extension of exemption from the payment of Education Cess and Rural Employment Cess for a further period of one year and extension of time by another year for liquidation of the arrear Cess will provide much needed boost to the ailing tea industry.

“Further, reduction of Tax from 12.5% to 4% on computerized and non-computerized embroidery machines will provide a fillip to the textile and hosiery industries which are yet to recover from the shock of global recession. This is also expected to provide a boost to the rural economy of the economy. For smooth convergence to GST the Hon’ble Finance Minister has rightly not tinkered with the Tax rates of various items.

“The State is a leading producer of vegetables, potato, fruits etc. However, no incentives for establishment of cold-chain and cold storage facilities have been given to reduce wastage of these perishable products. Adequate emphasis should have been laid for development of food processing industries.

“Shri Poddar, however, felt that adequate thrust should have been laid on infrastructure development on PPP mode in order to help industrial development and economic growth of our State”.

Giving his immediate reactions to the RBI Annual Statement on Monetary Policy for the year 2010-11, Shri Pavan Poddar, President, Bharat Chamber of Commerce, Kolkata, issued the following statement to the Press :

“The Reserve Bank of India Governor, Dr. D. Subbarao, presented the Annual Monetary Policy for the year 2010-11 addressing the twin issues of containing inflation and sustaining the recovery process. Increase in Repo Rate under the Liquidity Adjustment Facility by 25 basis points from 5.0% to 5.25% and also the Reverse Repo Rate by 25 basis points from 3.5% to 3.75% is quite expected in the present circumstances.

“The Reserve Bank of India has also increased the Cash Reserve Ratio of scheduled banks by 25 basis points from 5.75% to 6% which will suck Rs. 12,500 crore of excess liquidity from the system. Such liquidity tightening measure of the Reserve Bank would ultimately result in shortage of capital for productive purposes.

“For enhancing the credit flow to MSE sector, the proposal to mandate banks not to insist on co-lateral security in case of loans up-to Rs. 10 lakhs as against the present limit of Rs. 5 lakhs extended to all units of the Micro and Small Enterprises sectors is laudable. The banks are mandated to take effective steps to increase the flow of credit to the MSE sector, particularly Micro Enterprises as per the recommendations of the High Level Task Force on MSEs. Such measures will result in higher flow of credit to the MSE sectors which are in dire need of fund to thrive in the emerging competitive market situation.

“In order to facilitate adequate flow of credit to meet the increasing financing needs of infrastructure development, the Monetary Policy has proposed that infrastructure loan accounts classified as sub-standard will attract a provisioning of 15% instead of current prescription of 20% which is welcome.

“The proposal to constitute a Committee comprising representatives from the Reserve Bank, NABARD and a few State Governments to study the functioning of Credit Co-operative Societies which are engaged in disbursing loans to the dis-advantaged class of society is laudable.

“Shri Poddar felt that some positive measures should have been proposed to support the export sector which has been passing through a difficult phase due to global recession.”

Shri Pavan Poddar, President, Bharat Chamber of Commerce, Kolkata, has issued the following Statement to the Press, expressing concern over the steep increase in prices of Diesel by Rs. 2/- per litre, Cooking Gas by Rs. 35/- a cylinder and by Rs. 3/- per litre of Kerosene and decontrolling Petrol price leading to increase by Rs. 3.50 per litre.

"Shri Poddar observed that while fuel price hike was inevitable in the present circumstances, the steep hike is bound to have a cost push effect on the prices of all commodities and chain reaction on the entire economy of the country. The hike in fuel price will lead to surge in inflation which is currently crossed double digit, Shri Poddar felt."

"Shri Poddar opined that it would have been prudent for the Government to consider rise in fuel prices in a phased manner instead of one time hike."