Hailing the government's Rs 70,000 crore package for stressed exporters and real estate, India Inc on Saturday said the measures are decisive as well as comprehensive, and will provide a boost to the economy in near-term.
It also said that the announcements are in line with the industry expectations.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced about Rs 70,000 crore package for exports and real estate sectors on Saturday.
The package includes stressed asset fund of Rs 20,000 crore for housing projects, a new scheme for reimbursement of taxes paid on exports worth Rs 50,000 crore and Rs 1,700 crore dole for offering higher insurance cover to exporters.
"The Finance Minister's announcements are comprehensive and would give a boost to the economy in the near term. She has addressed issues in the two critical sectors that are facing distress exports and housing and the announcement are in line with industry recommendations," said CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee in a statement.
In housing, relaxation of ECB guidelines and a fund for last mile funding for completion of housing projects are in line with industry demands, the statement noted.
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"Urgent measures were needed to support exports, which have been declining in the current year. The new scheme to compensate exporters for all duties is going to help considerably. Additional measures such as provision of higher insurance cover, monitoring of export finance and turnaround times at ports and airports will go a long way in improving competitiveness of Indian exporters," Banerjee said.
Assocham also hailed yet another tranche of measures announced by Sitharaman to revive economic growth by addressing crucial sectors of exports and stressed residential real estate.
"The steps on helping exports should go a long way in making Indian exporters competitive in the global market which is becoming tougher by the day by a host of factors like non-tariff barriers in major economies of the world, the collateral damage of the US-China trade row and slowdown across different markets.
"Committing more credit to exporters, bringing down the turnaround time at the ports at par with global standards and making the tax rebate schemes WTO-compliant with particular focus on labour-intensive sectors like textile and handicraft would lift the sentiment in the export sector," Assocham President B K Goenka said.
The government is rightly addressing issue of tax assessment by moving towards e-assessment and removing the discretionary powers of individual officers, he noted. ''The Finance Minister has sent a clear signal to her tax officials to help the businesses and not take arbitrary actions. This is a laudable step."
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