Agra industries disappointed with first Union Budget of Modi govt 2.0
Talking to IndiaToday.in, Agra Tourist Welfare Chamber president Prahalad Agarwal said that the budget proved to be a disappointment as it made no provisions for tourism development in the Braj region.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the first Union Budget of Modi 2.0 government on Friday. It was a historic moment since it was the first Union budget presented by a full-time woman finance minister in the history of Independent India.
However, this historic budget failed to raise the spirits of the footwear, foundry, handicrafts and tourism industries in Agra. The representatives of these industries appeared disappointed at the ‘lackluster’ budget that was presented by Nirmala Sitharaman.
The footwear industry employs 3.5 lakh people in Agra, tourism employs about four lakh and the foundry and handicraft industries also employ about the same number of people. All these people were waiting for this budget’s proposals, hoping that a rebate in tax rates will be announced by the new finance minister.
Talking to IndiaToday.in, Agra Tourist Welfare Chamber president Prahalad Agarwal said that the budget proved to be a disappointment as it made no provisions for tourism development in the Braj region.
He said that the budget did not even mention about proposals of infrastructural development in the tourism sector and that was quite disheartening as there were high expectations from the new finance minister.
Voicing similar sentiments, Gagan Das Ramani, president of the Shoe Factors Federation of Agra said that Agra supplies 65 per cent of the shoes worn in India and also holds 27 per cent stake in the total footwear exports from the country.
One out of every four pairs of shoes exported is made in Agra and yet, Agra was given nothing for the development of this vital industry, he said.
Shoe exporter Gopal Das Gupta said that the efforts being made to simplify the labor laws by the government are welcome and the newly proposed corporate tax could be seen as a good step to regulate the economy. The proposal to impose TDS on withdrawals of Rs one crore and more is also a welcome step as it will promote the digital economy.
Virendra Agarwal, who is connected to the foundry industry, said that there are 155 foundry units in Agra, transacting about Rs 600 crore annually and giving employment to about 60,000 people.
“This industry has been in Agra since the Mughal era and only in 1996, did the industry go through a major transformation due to the Supreme Court orders. The industry had high hopes from this budget. It was hoped that the industry will get much-awaited reliefs like availability of CNG on lower prices, but the budget does not contain anything for the engineering component and foundry industries,” he said.
National Chamber of Industries and Commerce ex-president Rajiv Tiwari said that the 2 per cent interest waiver on MSME loans and simplification of GST will promote the industrial growth in India.
Chartered Accountant Ashok Jain said that this budget contains a lot of provisions that will ensure the “safety of our future generations and the welfare of the rural population”. “There are a lot of long-term plans contained in the budget that will show their effect in the coming years,” he said.
Hindustani Biradari vice-chairman Vishal Sharma praised the finance minister’s move away from the ‘briefcase-culture’ and said that by bringing the budget documents to Parliament wrapped in a red cloth like a ‘Bahi-Khata’, Sitharaman broke free of the British colonial symbols and represented the Indian culture.
Source:https://www.indiatoday.in/budget-2019/story/agra-industries-disappointed-with-first-union-budget-of-modi-govt-2-1563710-2019-07-07
