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Striking a balance between poll promises, future gains
Defence |
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Education
Agriculture
Health
Infrastructure
FM sets aside Rs 2,037 cr to clean up Ganga
Tourism
Social Security
Rs 1,000 monthly pension a reality now, wage ceiling up
FM has ‘overlooked’ Haryana’s wish list
High on rhetoric, low on delivery: Hooda
Package for Pandits; IIT for Jammu
HP gets IIM, tax holiday for power projects
Fiscal Health
Not much to revamp region’s agri-economy
Mixed response from PAU experts
Holy city divided in its opinion
No glimmer of ‘achhe din’ for farm sector
A flop show for Ludhiana industry Organic farmers fume
Sr citizens happy with I-T limit raise
Budget sets tone for job creation: Traders
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Striking a balance between poll promises, future gains
New Delhi, July 10 Having promised “acche din”, the proposals read out by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley brought some cheer to the middle and lower middle classes both in terms of tax breaks and dream of low-cost housing while it sought to open avenues for its accent on development. The Congress was quick to point out that its imprint could not to be erased from the proposals with former Finance Minister P Chidmabaram mocking that while promising to make India 'Congress-Mukt', his successor would have realised it was not possible to make a 'Congress-Mukt' Budget. The Congress felt that many of the schemes were extension of those created by the previous UPA. As for development, the thrust of the proposals depended on two outside factors – foreign direct investment and through the Public-Private Partnership mode, some 900 projects under it are in various stages of development. Among the proposals, some of them are targeted in the states where the BJP made substantial gains like Rajasthan and Gujarat and is likely to consolidate in the future. The northeast is one region that the government made special efforts to allocate funds and programmes. The region traditionally has been a Congress stronghold but with Assam showing the way in the recent Lok Sabha polls, the BJP hopes to spread its influence. Similarly, while the party has always extended support to Kashmiri migrants, it announced a few schemes, including setting up of solar parks, development of crafts and special accent on sports development, in a state where elections to the Assembly are due later this year. A similar sprinkling of projects has been announced in Haryana and Maharashtra which, too, will elect new representatives to the state Assembly.
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Defence In the last fiscal, the allocation for defence was Rs 2,03,672 crore and the capital allocation was Rs 86,740 crore, which was midway reduced to Rs 78,872 crore. For the first time, Rs 1,000 crore have been allocated to build 14 strategic railway lines in the Himalayas along the Line of Actual Control with China. This year, the expense on defence will be 12.75 per cent of the total Central Government spending and will constitute 1.78 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product. In the past, successive standing parliamentary committees on defence had recommended the allocation to be raised by at least 3-3.5% of the GDP. Jaitley announced a hike of
Rs 5,000 crore over and above the 10% hike announced in Interim Budget in February.
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Education New Delhi, July 10 The allocation for the HRD Ministry in PM Narendra Modi’s first Budget presented today is Rs 83, 771 crore. This marks an increase of Rs 9,150 crore over the revised estimates 2013-14 amounting to Rs 74, 621 crore. Majority budget has been allocated for school education which gets Rs 51,582 crore as against higher education for which Rs 16, 900 crore has been allocated. Rest of the money has been put aside for new schemes to set up IITs, vocational training and teachers’ training components. The important take away from today’s Budget is the announcement of five new IITs (one each in Jammu, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala) and five new IIMs in Himachal, Punjab, Bihar, Odisha and Maharashtra. For these 10 institutes of national importance Rs 500 crore has been allocated in the current fiscal year. Another Rs 100 crore has been set aside to create the first Central University of Himalayan Technologies at Uttarakhand. This varsity and new IITs are part of the BJP’s Lok Sabha poll manifesto. The important shift in the current Budget is stress on sanitation facilities for girls with Jaitley specifically referring to the need to spend more out of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan on creating toilets and drinking water facilities. The proposal is to provide one lakh such facilities to benefit 100 lakh girls in the first phase. “The move will help as a lot of girl students drop out on account of lack of sanitation in schools,” HRD Minister Smriti Irani said. For the first time in many years, a dedicated scheme was today announced for teachers’ training. Titled Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya’s Teacher Training Programme, it has received Rs 500 crore in allocation and would benefit nearly 20,000 teacher trainees currently studying in teacher education institutions, HRD Ministry officials said. A new component in today’s Budget relates to the need to monitor school learning outcomes with FM announcing Rs 30 crore for a School Assessment Programme to monitor learning outcomes of students. “The NCERT is currently developing modules for learning outcome assessments. Soon schools will be asked to follow these,” said HRD Ministry officials.
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FM endures cramped back during speech
New Delhi, July 10 Interesting to see was the House drenched in hues of mustard — considered auspicious — which most of the ruling MPs led by PM Narendra Modi and Jaitley wore on Thursday. In the visitor’s gallery, Jaitley’s wife Sangeeta and daughter Sonali were also seen dressed in mustard yellow. Voices of disgruntlement were far and few and came mostly from Trinamool Congress members whose usual refrain was neglect of Bengal in the Budget offerings. Trinamool found support from arch rivals Left when they were protesting Jaitley’s announcements on raise in FDI caps in defence production and other sectors. For most part of the speech which PM Narendra Modi followed word by word as Jaitley read from his side, Congress MPs sat silently happy to concede the Opposition space to the TMC led by MP Kalyan Banerjee, the belligerent Bengali who has been in news lately for his anti-Modi slogans. In sporadic intervals though Congress president Sonia Gandhi was also seen chatting with her MP son Rahul who sat beside her in the front row instead of the eight he usually prefers to occupy. Both appeared visibly upset all day about Lok Sabha TV’s footage that had caught Rahul napping in the House yesterday and had gone viral. The Treasury benches on the other hand posted a stark contrast to the Congress side as BJP MPs cheered and lauded Jaitley when he announced half a dozen schemes named after BJP’s ideologues such as Shyama Prasad Mookerjee and Deen Dayal Upadhyay. The loudest applause was heard when the minister promised Rs 200 crore for Gujarat’s efforts to build a statute in the honour of Sardar Patel, Modi’s ideal. Modi sat through the presentation calmly, applauding Jaitley only once he had finished his reading having endured a severe cramp in the back from long hours of standing. It was perhaps the first General Budget presentation during which the Speaker allowed Jaitley to take a break.
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Agriculture
New Delhi, July 10 Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also announced to allocate Rs 100 crore under the National Adaptation Fund to tackle the adverse impact of climate change on agriculture and finance to five lakh joint farming groups of Bhoomi Heen Kisan through NABARD in the current fiscal. In all, the allocation for the Agriculture Ministry increased substantially from Rs 19,306.82 cr in the last fiscal to Rs 22,652.25 crore. Agriculture research and education also saw a substantial hike from Rs 4,881.08 crore to Rs 6,144.39 crore this fiscal. Committing a sustained growth of 4 per cent in the sector, he promised a technology-driven green revolution with focus on productivity and including protein revolution. Jaitley retained the agriculture credit target of Rs 8 lakh crore for the fiscal set in the interim Budget. He said the ongoing scheme of loans to farmers at a concessional rate of 7 per cent and an interest subvention of 3 per cent for timely repayment would continue. Conceding the fact that bulk of farmlands was rain-fed and dependent on monsoon, he stressed on the need to provide assured irrigation to mitigate risk. To improve access to irrigation, he announced a scheme-Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana-for which he set aside Rs 1,000 cr. The Rs 500 cr provided to set up a Price Stabilisation Fund would take care of the price fluctuations in agriculture produce that creates uncertainties and hardship for farmers and price rise for the common man. The FM also announced setting up of two institutions in Assam and Jharkhand on the lines of Indian Agricultural Research Institute to strengthen research in the sector with Rs 100 crore this fiscal. He also proposed Rs 200 crore for setting up of two agri-universities in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan and two horticulture universities in Telangana and Haryana. He said Rs 100 crore would be set aside to establish an "Agri-Tech Infrastructure Fund". The government's other initiatives include a scheme with an outlay of Rs 100 crore to provide to every farmer a soil health card, additional Rs 56 crore for setting up 100 mobile soil testing laboratories across the country and Rs 50 crore for the development of indigenous cattle breeds and an equal amount for starting a blue revolution in inland fisheries. Jaitley proposed increasing capacity to increase shelf life of produce by proposing Rs 5,000 crore for the Warehousing Infrastructure Fund. The Minister proposed to raise the corpus of Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) by an additional Rs 5,000 crore from the target given in the Interim Budget to Rs 25,000 crore in the current fiscal. The NABARD operated RIDF helps in creation of infrastructure in agriculture and rural sectors. He proposed to set up "Long Term Rural Credit Fund" in NABARD for providing refinance support to cooperative banks and regional rural banks with an initial corpus of Rs 5,000 crore. To increase credit flow to farmers and avoid high-cost market borrowings by NABARD, he proposed to allocate Rs 50,000 crore for STCRC (Short Term Cooperative Rural Credit). He also proposed to supplement NABARD's Producers' Organization Development Fund for Producer's development and upliftment called 'PRODUCE' with a sum of Rs 200 crore which will be utilized for building 2,000 producers organizations across the country over the next two years.
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Health
New Delhi, July 10 On the infrastructure front, Finance Minister announced four new AIIMS-like institutions for Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Vidarbha (Maharashtra) and Purvanchal in UP. Two new national institutes of ageing will also be set up at AIIMs, New Delhi, and Madras Medical College, Chennai, for research in diseases related to the elderly. FM Arun Jaitley proposed to set up 12 more government medical colleges depending on requests from states and provide central assistance to strengthen the drug and food regulatory systems. “For the first time the Centre will provide assistance to power state drug regulatory and food regulatory systems and strengthen 31 existing state laboratories,” Jaitley said setting aside a budget of Rs 34, 234 crore for the Health Ministry. This marks an increase of 31 per cent over the revised estimates 2013-14 which stood at Rs 25, 990 crore. All departments under the Ministry of Health have received financial booster doses. The Health Department that deals with disease prevention and comprises the previous regime’s flagship National Health Mission has been allocated Rs 30,645 cr in the current fiscal as against Rs 23, 165 cr in the previous fiscal.
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Infrastructure
New Delhi, July 10 Leading from the front, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley gave enough signals to the investors to start making a beeline for India and as a major step forward announced the opening of the urban housing sector for foreign direct investment (FDI), a move which could push for modern structures and quality living. In a major boost for real estate and infrastructure sectors, he proposed tax incentives for two new investment instruments — REITs and InvITs — to help attract long-term funds from foreign and domestic investors, including the NRIs. The new investment products, Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs), can be listed on stock exchanges like shares of any company and allow retail and institutional investors to buy or sell those securities. Accepting a long-pending demand from the industry and the capital markets regulator SEBI, Jaitley said REITs have been successfully used as instruments for pooling of investment in several countries. “I intend to provide necessary incentives for REITs which will have to pass through for the purpose of taxation. As an innovation, a modified REIT-type structure for infrastructure projects is also being announced as Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs), which would have a similar tax efficient pass through status, for PPP (public-private partnership) and other infrastructure projects. He also gave a thrust for the development of the industry by announcing the setting up of 20 new industrial clusters and seven new industrial cities, while pushing for housing for all by 2022. Jaitley also announced extending the additional tax incentive on home loans to encourage people, especially the young, to own houses. He increased the tax benefit on the housing loans from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh per annum. Jaitley announced the setting up a Mission on Low Cost Affordable Housing to be anchored by the National Housing Bank (NHB) and proposed an allocation of Rs 4,000 crore during the current fiscal for NHB with a view to increasing the flow of cheaper credit for affordable housing to the urban poor/EWS/LIG segment. Further, slum development has been incorporated in the list of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities so that the private sector is encouraged to contribute more towards this activity. Jaitley said the Rural Housing Scheme has benefited a large percentage of population in these areas who have availed credit through Rural Housing Fund. The government also proposed an allocation of Rs. 7,060 crore in this financial year for developing 100 ‘smart cities’ in the country. “The Prime Minister has a vision of developing 100 smart cities as satellite towns of larger cities and by modernising the existing mid-sized cities. With development reaching an increasingly large number of people, the pace of migration from the rural areas to the cities is increasing,” Jaitley said. The new cities should be developed to accommodate the burgeoning number of people, otherwise, the existing cities would soon become unlivable, he added. “To encourage development of smart cities, requirement of the built-up area and capital conditions for FDI is being reduced from 50,000 square meters to 20,000 square meters and from $10 million to $5 million, respectively with a three year post completion lock in,” the minister said.
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FM sets aside Rs 2,037 cr to clean up Ganga
New Delhi, July 10 Jaitley said substantial money had been spent so far to conserve and improve the river but it had not yielded desired results due to lack of concerted efforts by the stakeholders. The new government’s focus on rivers and water resources of the country was echoed in the increased allocation for the Ministry of Water Resources — now renamed the Ministry for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation. It has been allocated Rs 13,836.64 crore — a substantial increase from Rs 1,241 crore it received for the 2013-14 fiscal. However, this is not for the first time that commitment has been made to clean up Ganga. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had set up the National Ganga Basin River Authority and declared Ganga a national river. Substantial money has already gone down the drain, with estimates varying between Rs 2,000 crore and Rs 20,000 crore. However, three decades and Rs 20,000 crore later, all schemes to clean up Ganga have little to show for result. It is to be seen how the new government tackles the situation but the fact is that it has also decided to rope in the NRI community for its cleaning. According to Jaitley, to harness the enthusiasm of the NRI community towards the conservation of the river, an NRI Fund for Ganga will be set up which will finance special projects. Apart from this, the government also set aside Rs 100 crore for ghat development and beautification of the river front at Kedarnath, Haridwar, Kanpur, Varanasi, Allahabad, Patna and Delhi. The Budget also contains renewed efforts to link rivers across the country. Launched by Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2002, it was pushed to the backburner by a wary UPA in the wake of ecological and feasibility concerns. The Finance Minister has set aside Rs 100 crore in the current Budget to expedite the preparation of Detailed Project Reports "as a serious move in this direction". However, voicing a word of caution, experts assert that river interlinking proposal is an environmentally disastrous proposition.
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Tourism
New Delhi, July 10 Setting aside Rs 500 crore for the development of tourists circuits around specific themes, Jaitley said India’s rich cultural, historical, religious and natural heritage provided a huge potential for the development of tourism and job creation as an industry. Apart from this he also announced two programmes specifically for promoting religious and heritage tourism in the country. One of them is National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) — a programme aimed at conserving and preserving heritage characters of religious cities like Amritsar, Mathura, Gaya, Kanchipuram, Vellankani and Ajmer with a provision of Rs 200 crore. The project will work through a partnership of the government, academic institutions and local community combining affordable technologies, Jaitley said The Sarnath-Gaya-Varanasi Buddhist circuit would also be developed with world class tourist amenities to attract tourists from all over the world. He also announced a National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Augmentation Drive (PRASAD) with an outlay of Rs 100 crore and another Rs 100 crore for preservation of archeological sites. Beach state Goa will be developed as an international convention centre with world class facilities. The government would support this initiative to develop the facilities in PPP mode through the VGF scheme, he said. Jaitley also announced the facility of e-Visa to promote tourism in India. The countries the facility will be extended to would be announced in a faced manner. Besides this, the government will develop airports in metros and non-metro cities through public-private partnership mode to enhance air connectivity. India plans to build 200 low-cost airports in the next 20 years to connect tier-II and tier-III cities, he said. The Civil Aviation sector has received a substantial hike of 11.4 per cent over last year. The Ministry has been allocated Rs 9,474 crore in the General Budget against Rs 8,502 crore provided to it in the last fiscal. National carrier Air India has been allocated Rs 7,069 crore for its operations whereas the Airports Authority Limited has been granted Rs 2,134 crore. While allocation for Air India has been increased only by Rs 6 crore, Pawan Hans helicopters Limited got a substantial hike from Rs 8.67 crore last year to Rs 46 crore this year. The government also plans to construct 15 additional airports under the greenfield airport policy by identifying the most suitable low cost viable model. The Economic Survey relased yesterday showed a healthy increase of 5.2% in domestic passenger traffic at Indian airports during April-March 2013-14.
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Social
Security
New Delhi, July 10 The government while admitting that the current capacity of Braille presses in India were not enough to meet the rising demand of Braille textbooks for use of visually impaired, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today announced budgetary support to states to set up 15 new Braille presses. "The Braille presses in the government and private sector are not able to meet the demand of Braille text books in the country. The government will provide assistance to set up 15 new presses and will also print currency notes with Braille like signs to assist the visible challenged persons," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said presenting the Union Budget for 2014-15. The government also said it would extend the existing scheme on aids and appliances for persons with disabilities to include in its ambit contemporary aids and assistive devices. An overall Budget of Rs 565 crore has been set aside for the department of disability which was last year set up as an independent department under the Social Justice Ministry. For women's safety, the government today announced an outlay of Rs 50 crore to be spent by Ministry of Road Transport on pilot testing of a scheme on "Safety of Women in Public Transport". Another Rs 150 crore is also proposed to be spent by Home Ministry on another scheme to enhance women's safety in big cities. Specifics of this scheme have not been provided though Jaitley said the pending Rs 100 crore Nirbhaya Fund would be used to set up crisis management centres in all government and private hospitals over this year. Another scheme the Government announced today was "Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao" which has been given an outlay of Rs 100 crore. Overall, the Ministry of Women and Child Development has been given a budget of Rs Rs 21,100 crore in today's budget as against the Ministry's revised estimate budget of Rs 18, 200 crore. "This marks an increase of Rs 2,900 crore over the budget revised in 2013-14," said ministry officials. Likewise, allocations for Social Justice Ministry (which caters to the backward classes, the SCs, STs and OBCs) has been raised to Rs 6165 crore over Revised Estimates of 2013-14 which stood at Rs 5625 crore. Over Revised Estimates 2013-14 for the Ministry of Social Justice, the current allocation represents a raise of 9.6 per cent (Rs 540
crore).
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Rs 1,000 monthly pension a reality now, wage ceiling up
New Delhi, July 10 While announcing that government is notifying the minimum pension under the Employees' Pension Scheme-1995 (EPS-95), Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also stated in his Budget speech today that wage ceiling covering organised sector workers under schemes run by EPFO has been raised to Rs 15,000 per month from existing Rs 6,500. "The government is fully committed to the social security and welfare of employees serving in the organised sector. The government is notifying minimum pension of Rs 1,000 per month to all subscriber members of EPS-95 scheme and has made an initial provision of Rs 250 crore in the current financial year to meet the expenditure," Jaitley said. He said, "Further, increase in mandatory wage ceiling of subscription to EPS-95 from Rs 6,500 to Rs 15,000 has been made and a provision of Rs 250 crore has been provided in the current Budget." At present, workers whose basic wage at the time of joining is up to Rs 6,500 per month, including basic pay and dearness allowance, can be subscribers of the EPFO schemes. According to the EPFO's estimates, the raising of wage ceiling to Rs 15,000 per month is expected to bring 50 lakh more workers under the ambit of social security schemes run by
it. Jaitley also said that for the convenience of the subscribers, Employees' Provident Fund Organisation
(EPFO) will launch the "Uniform Account Number" (UAN) Service for contributing members to facilitate portability of Provident Fund
accounts. EPFO has planned to launch the UAN for its over five crore subscribers by October this year. UAN will help EPFO to provide services to the subscribers at par with core banking services. Thereby the subscribers would not have to apply for PF account transfer claim on changing jobs. According to the earlier estimates of the Labour Ministry, the government will have to provide an additional amount of around Rs 1,217 crore to ensure a minimum pension of Rs 1,000 for 2014-15. The decision to provide this entitlement under EPS-95 was taken by the Union Cabinet in its meeting held on February 28 but could not be implemented due to commencement of election process for the Lok
Sabha. This will immediately benefit about 28 lakh pensioners, including 5 lakh widows. In all, there are 44 lakh pensioners under the EPFO scheme.
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FM has ‘overlooked’ Haryana’s wish list
Chandigarh, July 10 Except for two major projects—a horticulture university and bio-tech cluster at Faridabad—Jaitley ‘overlooked’ the wish list of Haryana Finance Minister HS Chattha, which he had presented to the Centre during pre-Budget consultations with the finance minister last month. Not only this, BJP leaders, who are still basking under the glory of winning seven out of 10 Lok Sabha seats and planning to go it alone in the upcoming Assembly elections, had high hopes from him. In his wish list, Chattha had demanded Rs 10,000 crore over the next five years for the maintenance of 1,459 canals, 15,404 water courses and 800 drains as these were national assets since Haryana was among the top-most contributors of foodgrains to the national pool. Besides, Chattha had batted for a Rs 500 crore package for promoting underground pipelines, drip irrigation and sprinkler irrigation schemes. He had also demanded an assistance of Rs 600 crore for setting up Horticulture Terminal Market at Gannaur in Sonepat. Chattha said industrial hubs of Haryana, especially in the NCR region, should be treated as national assets and be given special funds. However, Jaitley obliged Haryana with one bio-tech cluster at Faridabad, being represented by Krishanpal Gurjar, Union Minister of State for Surface Transport, Highways and Shipping. Similarly, the demand for the expressways, regional rapid transport system, sewage treatment solid waste disposal, power supply, water supply and extension of metro connections has escaped the attention of the finance minister. Similarly, the demand for investments in Haryana’s 74 towns for providing amenities such as roads, lighting, transport, water supply treatment plants has also been overlooked. Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was quick to dub the Budget ‘as mediocre, lacking vision and one that offers nothing new’ alleging that it had ‘ignored’ Congress-ruled states.
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High on rhetoric, low on delivery: Hooda
Chandigarh, July 10 “It looks people will have to wait endlessly for the ‘achhe din’ to come. People who voted for the change have begun to feel the pinch of ‘mehnge din’,” he said, adding that the Budget was high on rhetoric, low on delivery and offered the man on the street almost no relief. “Resorting to populism at the cost of fiscal prudence, the Union Budget does not offer the farmers and the labour class the promised relief. No steps have been taken to contain inflation”, he said. Hooda further said the Budget had shattered the hopes of people in the country and ignored the Congress-ruled states. AICC spokesperson
and Haryana Cabinet Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala termed the Union Budget 2014-15 as a “visionless, accounting statement bereft of any roadmap, reflecting apparent superficiality.” In a statement, Surjewala said the Finance Minister has laid no direction to ‘reduction of inflation and prices, creation of jobs, promotion of infrastructure and preservation of social welfare schemes.” “Even the artificial claim of generation of adequate resources and reduction of current account deficit to 4.1 per cent is not backed by any avenue of ‘resource generation’ or ‘resource creation’ symbolic of lack of specifics, clarity and purpose in the Budget.
Farmers' social security not taken care of: Expert
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Package for Pandits; IIT for Jammu
Jammu, July 10 Despite certain reservations expressed by industrialists and trading community members, welfare measures, including increase in Income Tax (IT) exemption and the announcement of setting up an IIT in Jammu, were welcomed by a cross-section of the society here. Ashwani Chrungoo, president, Panun Kashmir, said the allocation of
Rs 500 crore to the displaced Kashmiri Pandits and their rehabilitation was recognition for the first time. “Funds should be spent on confidence-building measures. A national-level committee should be formed to evolve a mechanism that takes care of geo-political aspirations of the displaced community," he said. Arun Gupta, general secretary, Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said tax exemptions and welfare measures initiated would benefit the common man. "An IIT in Jammu is a significant step," he said.
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HP gets IIM, tax holiday for power projects
Shimla, July 10 With no major announcement for restoring the special industrial package till 2020 nor any initiatives for the horticulture or tourism industry, the Budget does not offer much for HP. The state was hoping to get special attention as PM Narender Modi had spoken about promoting industry, fruit processing units and tourism promotionduring his election rallies at Solan and Sujanpur. The BJP, which swept the Lok Sabha polls by winning all four Lok Sabha seats had all along accused the Congress led UPA regime of giving step-motherly treatment to Himachal. It had already been disappointed after the the Rail Budget and now the General Budget too does not offer much for Himachal. The 10-year tax holiday for hydro-power projects in HP and holding of an annual meet of the unique games of the entire Himalayan states like Himachal, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim along with teams from Nepal and Bhutan also figure in the Budget. Himachal will have to contend with an IIM which will further strengthen its claim of an emerging education hub as three other reputed institutes - Central University (Kangra), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) Hamirpur are already there in the state. Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said the Budget was disappointing and contrary to the expectations of the people who had very high hopes from the Modi government.
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Fiscal Health Chandigarh, July 10 As far as Punjab is concerned, the Union Budget is disappointing," said eminent economist Sucha Singh Gill. The Budget has left state's debt issue untouched. When Pranab Mukherjee was the Finance Minister, he had proposed to set up a special committee at the Union Government level to address the issue. But Finance Minster Arun Jaitley has made no mention of such an arrangement though state's debt has crossed Rs 1 lakh crore and it is facing a fiscal crisis. "I think the Centre had completely ignored Punjab," said former Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal. Another issue that has been bothering the state was the special concessions announced to promote industry in hill states. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had recently met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to urge him to announce similar concessions to the state to protect its industry from shifting to neighbouring hill states. However, Jaitley skipped this issue in his Budget today. Punjab is one of the leading producers of medium-staple cotton. It has been urging the Centre for the past several years to set up a textile park in the Bathinda region. Though Jaitley has announced mega textile clusters for some other states, there is no such provision for Punjab. Even the Union Health Ministry
had recently assured CM Badal to set up an AIIMS-like institution in Punjab, but there is no mention of it in the Budget. Punjab had submitted a detailed report to the Centre for initiating diversification to move out from the wheat-paddy cycle. It had sought Rs 7,000 crore from the Centre to accomplish the task. However, there is no mention of it in the Budget. In fact, the UPA government had allocated some money to the state during the last fiscal year. Punjab is a state where hundreds of farmers have committed suicide in recent years due to debt burden, but there is no provision to address that issue. Then there has been a need to improve the canal system in the state. The Centre has made a provision of Rs 1,000 crore for the entire country though Punjab alone needs about Rs 7,200 crore for the purpose. Aam Aadmi Party leader and MP Dharmvira Gandhi said there was no mention of implementing the Swaminathan committee report in the Budget to determine the MSP of crops. "Promise in this regard was made in the BJP's manifesto, but there is no mention of it the Budget," he said. "There is also no mention of crop insurance, employment for youths and regularising private educational institutions. There is no major provision for primary and secondary health facilities, secondary and higher education," he added.
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Not much to revamp region’s agri-economy
Chandigarh, July 10 The Budget has failed to impress industrialists and agriculturists in the region that gave Haryana a horticulture university and Punjab and Himachal Pradesh an Indian Institute of Management (IIM) each, besides funds for upgrading biotechnology centres at Faridabad and Mohali. A Special budgetary provision has been made for including Amritsar in the National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana; a new debt recovery tribunal is proposed to be set up at Chandigarh; and an Institute for Himalayan Studies is proposed for Uttarakhand. Jammu and Kashmir has got the maximum projects-a pashmina development centre, funds for upgrading stadiums and an allocation for rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pundits. But these projects are unlikely to give a fillip to the sagging economies of these states in the region. Expectations of most of the industrial sectors, including steel, pharmaceutical industry, textile industry, sports goods manufacturers, bicycle and bicycle parts manufacturers, hand tool manufacturers, have been dashed. Of the new textile clusters to be developed, none has been allocated to textile hubs in the region like Ludhiana or Panipat. The industry is also concerned about the continuation of Techniocal Upgradation Funds Scheme (TUFS) for the textile industry. Farmers have also given thumbs down to the Budget. They feel the main focus is on increasing credit to agriculturists. What they need is investment in irrigation network, better marketing facilities and FDI in retail, they say. "FDI has been increased only in the defence and insurance sectors. Farmers will have benefited if big agri-corporate and cash and carry stores were encouraged, especially in this era where minimum support price is limited to a few crops and it hardly factors into account the input costs," says Abdul Majid, a farmer in
Malerkotla.
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Mixed response from PAU experts
While some among the fraternity pointed out that there was nothing new in the Budget, the others said it was a very good and farmer-friendly Budget. But for those related with the veterinary university, Budget had nothing to promote animal husbandry. Dr MS Toor from Economics Department of PAU said that there were high expectations but the Budget of NDA government had brought nothing new for the agriculture sector. The lone bright spot was that the loan availability had been increased from Rs 7 lakh crores to Rs 8 lakh crores. "The farmers as well as those related with agriculture were hoping that the recommendations of MS Swaminathan Committee will be implemented and prices will be fixed after giving profit to the farmers but nothing was done. In fact, this issue figured in the BJP manifesto. But still it has not been taken care of by the party leaders", said Dr Toor. President of Borlaug Farmers’ Association for South Asia PS Pangli said it was a very good Budget and had brought more than expected for the agriculture sector. The issuing of soil health cards was a step towards progress. Moving labs will check the soil health in villages through which farmers will be able to know if there was any overdose of fertilizers, etc. "Apart from this, we were demanding a TV channel for farmers for the past four years. The announcement to start one has come as a big relief. Farmers will now be able to update themselves regarding the latest farm inputs. "The proposal to bring agriculture and horticulture universities in Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Telangana is a good step", said Pangli. Experts at Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU) preferred not to comment on the Union Budget, which had no mention of animal husbandry. One of the senior faculty members, wishing not to be quoted, said the state government always gave importance to animal husbandry. "Keeping the interest of farmers in mind, the Union Budget could have given some incentives to promote animal husbandry, which has been totally ignored. We will entirely depend on the state government now", said the faculty member.
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Holy city divided in its opinion
Amritsar, July 10 While a section of prominent citizens feels the city has gained from Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s experience of contesting the Lok Sabha elections from the Amritsar constituency, others opine he hasn’t delivered what he had promised. Khanna Paper Mill director Suneet Kochhar said, “The Finance Minister’s announcement to speed up the work on Kolkata-Amritsar Industrial Corridor augurs well for trade and industry in the border district. The move to conserve the heritage character of the holy city is also a welcome step, as it is one of the major tourist destinations in North India.” CII Task Force on Governance member Gunbir Singh said the Finance Minister’s Amritsar experience might eventually benefit the city. “It is heartening to note the intent to fast track the Eastern Industrial Corridor from Kolkata to Amritsar as it can pan out interesting opportunities for the region. The specific mention of heritage conservation of Amritsar by Arun Jaitley is laudable indeed as the walled city needs conservation, whereas the new areas require sustainable development.” Amritsar Hotel and Restaurant Association president AP Singh Chatha said though the inclusion of Amritsar under the heritage conservation scheme is a positive sign, the Finance Minister left much to be desired when it came to boosting tourism sector in the holy city. “He could have done much more to bail out the city’s hospitality industry, which is reeling under a serious crisis. We had conveyed to him our problems when he contested the Lok Sabha elections from Amritsar,” he added. Farmer leaders also gave a thumbs down to the Budget. It had nothing for the border areas despite the fact that the Finance Minister was very well aware of the problems prevailing in villages there, they said. Farmer leader Rattan Singh Randhawa said, “He visited border villages during the elections and had also assured all help for their development, but to no avail. The border farmers were hoping for a compensation of at least Rs 15,000 per acre for the land across the fence. Similarly, people were expecting the government to generate job opportunities for unemployed youths in the border villages, but the Budget failed on that count too,” he added. The Budget did not bring any good news for even debt-ridden farmers, Randhawa said. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had claimed that MSP for various crops would be fixed as per the Swaminathan Commission report once the NDA came to power, but he was also silent on the issue now, he said.
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No glimmer of ‘achhe din’ for farm sector
Bathinda, July 10 What is good in the Budget? Farmers will be forced to stick to the traditional wheat-paddy cycle as only these crops can save them from the agony of selling their produce at throwaway prices in the absence of MSP for other crops. Paddy plantation will mean continuing with the exploitation of groundwater resources, thus aggravating the ecological crisis that has already assumed alarming proportions, he says. Isn’t it ridiculous that the government is giving us subsidy on maize seeds to break free of wheat-paddy cycle, but at the same time it does not fix any MSP for the produce? I don’t know why hype is being created over the launch of a 24-hour television channel for farmers. No farmer goes to his fields for undertaking farming operation after cramming instructions from the television. Regional centres of agricultural universities are far more beneficial for farmers than television programmes. Something should have been done to upgrade such centres. It would have been better if institutions such as cash-strapped Punjab Agricultural University were allocated more funds to conduct farmer outreach programmes on a bigger scale. The Budget talks about a technology-aided second Green Revolution and sets a target of Rs 8 lakh crore for agriculture credit during the current year. When we have alarming rise in cases of farmer suicides in the state as they are unable to repay their earlier loans, how can the government expect farmers to make any fresh commitments? There is no mention of the relevance of technology for small farmers who will have to play a very crucial role if any such revolution was to be actually made realty. There is nothing for small farmers. There is also no mention of any proposed measures to lighten the already existing debt burden of farmers. |
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A flop show for Ludhiana industry Ludhiana, July 10 “Though the Budget covered mainly all issues, it had no special attraction for the MSME sector, especially for the bicycle industry. It gave thrust to the farming sector and the poor, but the bicycle, being a poor man’s luxury vehicle, was left completely untouched,” said Rajeev Jain, general secretary of the United Cycle and Parts Manufacturers’ Association. Upkar Singh Ahuja, general secretary, Chamber of Industrial and Commercial Undertaking, said the BJP government in its maiden Budget had given step-motherly treatment to the Punjab industry. Punjab being a border states has not been given any industrial incentive/s which are being enjoyed by the neighbouring states for the last more than 10 years. “The cycle and cycle parts industry in Punjab, which is already reeling under adverse economic scenario, has neither been provided any incentive nor relief in excise duty,” said Ahuja.
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Organic farmers fume Faridkot, July 10 To save fast-depleting table of ground water and avoid excessive use of pesticides and chemicals in agriculture in Punjab, the organic farmers in the state were expecting subsidy on the pattern of chemical based agriculture to give a boost to organic farming in Punjab. But the Budget has no such provision, said Umindera Dutt, executive director, Kheti Virasat Mission (KVM), an organisation dedicated to organic and chemical-free agriculture network in the state. The worst impact of intensive chemical-based agriculture was visible in north India on environment, health and ecology and there was an urgent need to promote sustainable agriculture. But like the previous Congress-led UPA government, the BJP had also failed to deliver even if the party promised it in its manifesto, said Umendra Dutt. “We expect the BJP government to announce subsidy for organic farming. Every year the Central Government spends crores of rupees on chemical fertilizer subsidies but there is not even single penny of subsidy, incentive or bonus to the farmers who have shifted to ecologically sustainable natural farming,” said OP Rupela, an agriculture scientist and a former member of UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.
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Sr citizens happy with I-T limit raise
Fatehabad, July 10 Haryana Civil Pensioners’ Association president Harband Lal Sethi, a retired government teacher, said the Budget had provided them much relief. “The income tax exemption limit has been raised to Rs 3 lakh for senior citizens. This means that a pensioner getting a monthly pension up to Rs 25,000 per month need not worry at all, as he or she does not have to pay any tax,” Sethi said. He said senior citizens, who were drawing more pension, will get the benefit of increase in the limit for savings from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.50 lakh under the 80C. Sethi said the senior citizens and retired people had been badly hit by inflation. “Jaitley in his speech mentioned that the NDA government during its last term in office had introduced the Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana (VPBY) as a pension scheme for senior citizens. The Finance Minister has proposed to revive the scheme for a limited period from 15 August, 2014, to 14 August, 2015, for the benefit of citizens aged 60 and above. He also proposed to set-up a committee to examine and recommend the use of unclaimed amounts with PPF, post office, saving schemes, etc., for the benefit of senior citizens,” he said. Sethi said there was a lot of expectation that senior citizens would be exempted from tax on interest on income, but that did not happen.
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Budget sets tone for job creation: Traders
Baddi, July 10 The Himachal Chapter of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) termed the Budget as a roadmap for fiscal consolidation. The CII opined it will help revive sectors like agriculture, power and infrastructure, manufacturing, and services, and tax rationalisation will restore investors’ confidence. CII Himachal Pradesh, State Council, Chairman Arun Rawat said the Budget would set the tone for quick recovery of GDP growth and job creation. The creation of a high-level committee by the CBDT to scrutinise all cases arising out of past amendments was also welcomed. CII Vice-Chairman Rajiv Aggarwal said the Skill Mission should be rolled out at the earliest as it would build multi-skill capacity. Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh Industries Association (BBNIA) senior vice-president Sailesh Aggarwal said the Budget would help consolidate fiscal deficit which was the need of the hour, given the grim financial scenario. He added the tax exemption to infrastructure and power sector companies till 2017 will help them giving a boost to the overall power scenario in the state. The industry has welcomed the announcement of 15 per cent investment allowance which a manufacturing company will get if it invests more than Rs 25 crore in a year in a new plant and machinery. Sara textiles chief executive officer SM Dwivedi said the step aimed at giving a boost to the large-scale sector and help India compete with international players like China where the interest rates are as low as 4 per cent.
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New Delhi, July 10
New Delhi, July 10
New Delhi, July 10
"The government has made footwear, LED, mobile phones and computers cheaper, while the cost of readymade garments has been increased. Clothing is the basic need of every individual and the government should not have put extra burden on the common man by taking such a step (increasing the excise duty on filament fibre)," said Vinod Thapar, chairman of the Knitwear Club.
The proposal to increase FDI from in defence production will harm our national security. The country can’t afford to depend on foreign firms. Allowing foreign companies to set up assembly units here would be a retrograde
step
It is not an over-ambitious, but a realistic Budget. It makes the roadmap of the NDA government clear on as to how it wants to go ahead with the development of the country. It has successfully captured people’s
imagination
The Budget is just a laundry list of Rs 100 crore proposals and is all about usurping the United Progressive Alliance government ideas. It will not quicken the economic pulse,
in fact, it will slow it down
They (the NDA government) had said they would continue with the tax collection fixed by the previous government, but they have given concession to the big industrial houses under
pressure
The Budget is visionless, missionless and actionless from the angle of the common people. It is not going to stimulate growth and development of the poor. The new government is of the FDI, by the FDI and for the FDI.
The most important thing the Finance Minister did was to give highest priority to infrastructure, ports... that will increase our export. It will create more employment and accelerate
economy
The Budget has come as a disappointment. It falls short on fueling the engine of growth. It is a corporate Budget. There
is nothing exceptional to provide the much needed impetus to economy.
The Union Budget is aimed at operation revival of the nation's economy. Manufacturing and agriculture sectors, and small and medium enterprises will get a major
boost.
The government is fully committed to the social security and welfare of employees serving in the organised sector. The government is notifying minimum pension of Rs 1,000 per month to all subscriber members of EPS-95 scheme and has made an initial provision of Rs 250 crore in the current financial year to meet the
expenditure
The Centre has not sanctioned
Rs 4,000 crore for the rehabilitation of damaged infrastructure in the disaster-hit areas of the state. The economic condition of the state would have improved if the Union Government had sanctioned a horticulture
university
The Budget has taken care of the aspiration of all sections, including the farmers, employees and industry. Enhancement in the income tax and PPF limit will bring great relief to the common
man
It is innovative and dynamic Budget which will give a boost to
agriculture and food processing besides addressing the concerns of all sections of
society.
Today, Punjab got more than what six UPA ministers could not get in the past 10 years. An IIM coming to Punjab and Rs 200 crore for Amritsar city alone are quite
laudable.
The Union Budget has failed everybody's expectations and more so of the Punjabis who have been promised moon by the Badals ahead of the General
Election.
The Budget has disappointed aam aadmi. Jaitley had promised to safeguard interests of Punjab, but has done nothing to bail out the state facing fiscal
emergency.
The roadmap to the dreamland promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his election campaign recently
has been found missing. The dream has turned sour. 
New Delhi, July 10
The Defence Budget for the ongoing fiscal is Rs 2.29 lakh crore, of which Rs 94,588 crore have been earmarked for new projects, equipment and acquisitions under the capital expenses. This will include Rs 21,730 crore for IAF aircraft — a possible hint of new acquisitions — Rs 15,591 crore for tanks, ammunition, missiles, armaments etc, Rs 15,352 crore for IAF new projects and ground-based equipment for bases, Rs 4,358 for new projects of the Navy’s upcoming bases on the east coast and Rs 12,576 crore for the Naval fleet.
What the state wanted
Hisar: The farming sector got some boost with announcements such as warehouse scheme, price-stabilisation fund and Kisan TV, but no steps were taken to provide social security to farmers and to promote livestock farming, especially Murrah breed of buffalo. Making these observations on the union Budget, Kanwal Singh, a
progressive farmer from Singhwa Khas village in Hisar district, said: "Farmers need to assess how these schemes will be implem- ented in the next few months. They are waiting for measures which will make farming a profitable occupation as higher input costs and low returns have brought them to a state of financial ruin." "It's unclear how price-stabilisation fund will be utilised
and how it will help
farmers. — Deependra Deswal
Ludhiana, July 10
The announcement by the Finance Minister to speed up the work on Kolkata-Amritsar Industrial Corridor augurs well for trade and industry in the border
district.
It is heartening to note the intent to fast track the Eastern Industrial Corridor from Kolkata to Amritsar as it can create interesting opportunities for the
region.
A progressive farmer’s
take