The Railway Budget as well as the Union Budget are very encouraging to the port sector and corporatisation of ports is a welcome trend, according to D.K Manral, the CEO of Vedanta Ports.

He was speaking at a seminar on the Union Budget organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here on Thursday. He said it was only logical to expect the ports to become corporates from being landlord ports. He said the productivity of the ports would go up. The Railway Budget would also pave the way for debottlenecking and faster evacuation of cargo through railways. In future, the imports of thermal coal would come down but imports of coking coal are likely to go up, he said.

V. Ajay Kumar, Managing Director of Vijay Nirman Company (P) Ltd., said the allocation of Rs 70,000 crore for infra development was a positive move, even though the low allocation to the Mumbai-New Delhi corridor of Rs 1,200 crores was disappointing.

Neeraj Sarda,  MD of Sarda Metals  and Alloys Ltd. and the Chairman of the Visakhapatnam zone of the CII, said the MAT on SEZs should have been done away with, a view echoed by many other speakers.

G.S Shiv Kumar, the CEO of Maple Software Pvt. Ltd. and the vice-chairman of AP CII, said the national fibre optic network project would pave the way of digitalisation of the rural areas.

Deepa B. Dasgupta, the Chief Commissioner of Central Excise, Customs and Service Tax, said the response to the Budget was generally positive barring a few dissenting voices.

Ch. Omkareswar, the Commissioner of Income Tax, said the reduction of corporate tax by 5 per cent to 25 per cent was in tune with most of the countries. It was necessary to attract investment into the country.

Several speakers pointed out that there was little in the budget for Andhra Pradesh and the promised special status was not granted to the State.

 

sarma.rs@thehindu.co.in

 

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