Budget 2012: A stereotypical one at best, says NE industries

Industry chambers of the NE have termed the union Budget presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today as a 'stereotype' with nothing specific in it for Assam and the North Eastern region.

Federation of Industry and Commerce of North Eastern Region (FINER) said the decision to increase service tax and lack of stimulus for the industry would curb growth, which is already weak. "There are no measures in the budget to revive industry. Instead standard excise duty has been hiked.

There are also no sops for the North East," FINER Chairman R S Joshi said. He said while the Union Budget has a plethora of schemes for social projects, the same is missing for industry. "Already the cost of borrowings is high on account of RBI's repeated interest rate hikes. This has made it expensive to undertake fresh investments and now hike in excise will only affect the industry more," Joshi said.

The government is hard-pressed for cash and has proposed to levy additional indirect taxes of Rs 45,940 crore for 2012-13 at a time when the industry is facing slowdown in demand, he said. FINER, however, hailed the move to reduce securities transaction tax from 0.125% to 0.1% and said this would cut capital market transaction costs. The tea industry criticised the union budget for failing to give any sops to revive the ailing sector.