The Industry and trade in this region welcomed the union budget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Parliament and termed it as "generally well thought and balanced one" taking into consideration the overall needs of the country and the sectors.
The budget focused on how the growth of the country will be, by covering needs of all the sectors, R R Balasundaram, President, Local Chapter of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told reporters here.
By giving thrust to all the sectors like education, water, agriculture, health care, housing and manufacturing, the budget has given the much needed encouragement for the growth, as expected by the industry and trade, he said.
Vishwanathan of Builders Association of India said the construction industry was given a boost with announcement of low cost housing and small warehousing for agriculture sector.
A Sakthivel, President, Tirupur Exporters Association, welcomed the budget and termed it as a pragmatic one giving more thrust for boosting manufacturing sector through infrastructure development in Roads, Ports and Power.
Shaktivel welcomed announcement of investment allowance at 15 per cent to a manufacturing company that invests more than Rs 25 core in any year in new plant and machinery and noted this will be beneficial to garment entrepreneurs.
Southern India Mills' Association thanked the Government for extending the optional route Cenvat for textiles, which was one of the demands of industry, till GST was implemented, to have a level playing field.
SIMA Chairman T Rajkumar in a statement said that the exempting cotton transport loading and unloading services from the purview of service tax, will give a considerable relief to the industry and cotton farmers, since Tamil Nadu was sourcing more than 95 per cent of cotton from other states.
