Most industry leaders, who participated at the "Vote for Growth" panel discussion organised by UTVi business news channel in Mumbai on Monday, termed the Interim Budget a non-event. Edited excerpts:
Infosys Co-Chairman Nandan Nilekani said, "This is more like what I had expected -- reappraisal of last five years of achievements. We had expected more. We have eventually got disappointed to our own hype."
"It was completely a non-event. It was more a political statement than an interim budget. There was nothing for any sector, forget about real estate," Parsvnath Developers Chairman Pradeep Jain said.
Expressing similar sentiments, Kotak Mahindra Bank Managing Director Uday Kotak said, "Acting finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has stuck to what is good convention."
TCS ED and CFO S Mahalingam said there were two stimulus packages given in the past couple of months and they were going to stay as they were. "I am disappointed," he said.
Stating that the government did not have much of a choice, Hinduja Group CFO Prabal Banerjee said: "They did what they could best do."
Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) President Sajjan Jindal said the directions on infrastructure refinancing, a focus area, were not clearly laid out.
“The Assocham was expecting a third and last stimulus package in the Interim Budget, which, however, did not happen as it seems Mukherjee restrained himself from presenting it and rather chose the new government to unveil the package on the lines anticipated by industry,” Jindal said.
Newly elected Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) President Harsh Pati Sighania said the Interim Budget “gives a clear message on what steps need to be taken in the months following the general elections”.
Mehul Choksi, MD, Gitanjali Gems, said: The budget was not at all up to the expectations. They have not addressed number of issues hurting the industry. Dollar, gold availability is just not there. It is a large industry and they need to address the problems.
Rajendra Hinduja, Gokuldas Exports, said: "On the textile sector, it is a disappointment. With all the meetings with Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, we were assured some steps. I am sure if things are not done, one million jobs will be lost in a month...."
The realty sector was particularly disappointed. Anuj Puri of Jones Lang Lasalle Meghraj said the industry had hoped for another round of stimulus... "We had expectations for the real estate sector... the sector has been hit pretty harsh... demand has really gone down... now that the home loans rates have come down and developers have started reducing prices, the demand stimulus is not really coming up... so, we thought that tax incentives may be provided to end users... we also hoped that there will another stimulus package for the developer community... they have not been addressed..."
