Budget 2016: Mixed reactions in Southern districts

TIRUNELVELI: Despite the global economic slowdown the Narendra Modi government seemed to have passed in the ‘Big Exam’—the union budget 2016-2017- in the eyes of the farmers and small traders in the southern districts as the budget has its main focus on the rural economy, especially on the farming sector that is to get a total allocation of Rs 35,984 crore.

“Having focused mainly on enhancing the general welfare of the rural farmers and the poor people in the villages, the finance minister has presented a budget that has tongue-tied the opposition members,” said farmer Balasubramaniya Adithan of Tiruchendur, Nainar Kulasekaran, the coordinator of Thamirabarani river water protection forum welcomed the budgetary allocation of Rs 60,000 crore for recharging ground water.

The increased excise duty on tobacco products by 10-15 per cent, though, has been generally appreciated. This increase is expected to discourage tobacco consumption, the anti-tobacco campaigner, Dr Charles Prem Kumar of Tirunelveli said, and suggested that beedi too should not have been given exemption as beedi having raw tobacco in it is more injurious to health.

The physician, Charles too applauded the announcement creating facilities at every district hospitals in the country for dialysis. He however wanted the facility to be created by the government under the National dialysis service programme instead of implementing it through PPP mode.

The allocation of Rs 38,500 crore, the highest ever for the rural employment guarantee scheme, introduced by the Congress-led UPA government, and the announcement to create a hub to support SC/ST entrepreneurs would help the BJP gain its position among the Dalits, observed a left leaning bank employee, the Nagercoil based Maruthappan.

He was, however, critical about no increase in the income tax slabs. The Rs 25,000 crore proposed for re-capitalization of the public sector banks is highly inadequate, he added.

Allocation of Rs 3,000 crore for nuclear power generation brought in the criticism of anti-nuke activists like Pushpa Rayan, according to whom the government should place a White Paper before the nation over the amount being spent actually for its civil nuclear programme every year.

Rayan too was critical about the Finance minister saying a  comprehensive plan for nuclear energy in the next 15-20 years has been developed.

‘Disappointing’, says Consumer body
The Federation of Consumer and Service Organisations expressed its dissatisfaction over the Central budget for the coming fiscal 2016-17, and said that there was no attractive announcement even in the third budget of the BJP Government.

In a release, Federation president M Sekaran said that the personal income tax slab also remain unchanged and this was a great disappointment to the middle class. There was no encouraging scheme announced to widen the income tax payers net.

However, he welcomed the huge allotment of funds for various schemes and said that some announcements for the development of farmers and agriculture seemed good.

He also criticised the health insurance scheme and said that it would only help corporate hospitals. Government should ensure health care to all citizens without any ceiling amount, he added.

Mr Sekaran further said that there was no encouraging announcement in the budget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday to promote small-scale industries under the ‘Make in India’ scheme.

Chamber welcomes Budget
The Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Madurai, welcomed the Union Budget 2016-2017 for giving more focus on rural development and agriculture growth and farmers welfare.

With an allocation of Rs 35,984 crore for farm sector, grant-in-aid for grama panchayats and municipalities totaling Rs 2.87 lakh crore, commitment to achieve 100% village electrification by May 1, 2018 and plan to launch the digital literacy mission to spread digital literacy in rural area, the finance minister seems to have realised the importance of development of rural economy and multiplication of agricultural production to accelerate our GDP growth, said N Jegathesan, president, TNCCI.

On the infrastructure front, the total outlay of Rs 2,18,000 crore in the Budget on roads and railways, action plan for revival of 160 unserved and underserved airports and air strips with state government participation at an indicative cost of Rs 50 crore to Rs 100 crore each and the introduction of three new initiatives to reinvigorate the infrastructure, with many schemes to be implemented in PPP mode, shows the government commitment to modernising infrastructures to motivate industrial and economic growth in the country, he said.

Permitting 100% FDI through FIPB route in marketing of food products produced and processed in India will provide adequate impetus for the growth of food processing industries in the country, said Jegathesan.  

However, in the tax proposals, it is unfortunate that FM has chosen to ignore the popular demand for increasing the threshold for income tax for individuals as if would have provided more surplus funds with consumers at large and consequent boost to domestic production, especially in consumer durable products, he said.

Raising of the ceiling of tax rebate under section 87 A of the Income Tax Act from Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 and increase in the limit of deduction in respect of rent paid under Section 80 GG from Rs 24,000 to Rs 60,000 would provide only marginal relief to the middle class tax payers, he added.

However, an increase in the annual turnover limit for mandatory audit report for presumptive taxation under section 44 AB of the Income Tax Act for non corporate businesses from Rs 1 core to Rs 2 crore, as demanded by TNCCI would provide big relief to a large number of assessees in the MSME category.