Post Budget Reaction from Mr. Anand Natarajan, Chief Technology Officer, Image InfoSystems Pvt. Ltd
Given the state of economic situation, the country has been witnessing economic uncertainties due to both domestic and international factor. The Union Budget 2015 appears to be quite positive and on the right path. In the initial period though there will be some concerns, but if we look over the horizon, there will be some sort of stability in the Indian economy. Hopefully the fluctuations, which are bound to happen on the international front, have been taken into consideration by the Finance Minister. Already there are enough indications with regard to oil prices.
The announcement of setting up MUDRA Bank with a corpus of INR 20,000 crores can go a long way in addressing the requirements of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector. This availability of low cost credit will surely create the required movement within the MSME sector. Another noticeable and positive announcement was the allocation of INR 1,000 crores for technology start-ups and government’s intent to create INR 3,000 crores ‘credit guarantee fund’ to support small business units. These two initiatives will result in qualitative employment generation and will also incentivize self-employment and entrepreneurship.
The proposed increase in the allocation of funds for capital spending in the infrastructure sector will have a very definite impact on India’s socio-economic scenario. Another positive impact on the socio-economic front is the proposal to increase the bandwidth of social security net through insurance and pension schemes.
The government in its Union Budget 2015-16 has clearly focused on physical, social and economic infrastructure, which would pave the road for future growth. I am of the view that the new government has presented a progressive budget, which will help in creating an investor-friendly environment and attract more foreign and domestic investment. There are clear indications that the government wants to create a competitive environment so as to attract innovation and bring global expertise and technology and international funding to India in order to give a boost to the growth of the Indian economy.
The concern, however, is that there were not enough tax sops, which the industry was hoping for. The increase in the service tax is a matter of concern, which will surely have its influence on the money generation in the Indian economy.
