Exporters have welcomed the initiatives to reduce the cost of doing business, announced in the Budget today.
The Budget of the NDA Government, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, focuses on the ease and cost of doing business, while giving a fillip to manufacturing in the small and medium enterprises segment.
The 15 per cent investment allowance for investments of Rs 25 crore, as against Rs 100 crore in the past, would help SMEs in their manufacturing endeavour, according to EEPC India Chairman Anupam Shah.
Stating that the extension of customs service 24X7 at more airports would also help both import and export cargo and make life easier, Shah added that the emphasis on solar energy in the Budget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was also a welcome move.
He added that the correction of the inverted duty structure on imports too was a positive one. While structural solutions sought to emphasise on roads, airports and ports, the export sector would have liked some immediate incentives so that Indian products could become competitive in the international market, taking advantage of some of the weaknesses of Chinese products.
Engineering exporters would look forward to some more measures in the forthcoming foreign trade policy, that should resolve several contentious issues such as tax deducted at source on foreign commission agents, he added.