Reacting to the State Budget, Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC) said: “The Budget has a slew of policy-oriented announcements and targets set for building the urban-rural economy, creating jobs, boosting infrastructure and promoting the SME sector.”

The implementation of Karnataka model of e-way bill in the entire country is a matter of pride for the State and it will bring in a qualitative change in tax compliance and thus streamline the implementation of GST, said S Venkataramani, Chairman, State Taxes Expert Committee, BCIC.

Venkataramani further said the government’s directional thrust for infrastructure development, especially in and around Bengaluru, is very essential to safeguard ‘Brand Bengaluru’ in the global community. “However, we have to wait and see how much of these funds will really translate into work on ground.”

Overall, the BCIC commended the focus on development of infrastructure and the thrust on rural and allied sectors. However, the Chamber believes more could have been done for the industrial development in the State, especially when Karnataka is losing projects to the neighbouring States.

Focus on expenditure

“This year, due to GST implementations, it was a foregone conclusion that the budgetary exercise had to concentrate mostly on the expenditure front and not much on the revenue front,” said K Ravi, President, Federation of Karnataka Chamber of commerce (KCCI).

“Being a seasoned player, the Chief Minister concentrated more on the socio-economic factors. It was a speech focussed on how his expenditure towards the social sector has benefited in the growth of GSDP to 8.5 per cent. Agriculture and industry gre more than 4.5 per cent and the service sector grew 10.5 per cent,” he added.

FKCCI thanked the government for having considered increasing the budgetary allocation to ₹,681 crore to industry and accepted some of the its pre-Budget recommendations regarding Centre of Excellence for Industry 4.0(robotics, IoT and Artificial Intelligence), infrastructure facility for Peenya Industrial Estate and cluster development.

The Karnataka Small Scale Indistries Assocation (KASSIA) welcomed the measures aimed at supporting the small and medium enterprises in the State by making provisions to improve the basic infrastructure at the Peenya Industrial Estate, creation of logistics parks at Bengaluru and Hubballi, creation of 11 new industrial estates, provision of loans for micro enterprises, interest subsidy of 10 per cent for new SMEs for the first five years, among others.

R Hanumanthe Gowda, President, KASSIA, said: “The need for a comprehensive approach for improving the infrastructure in more industrial estates in the State has been addressed.”

The association also welcomed the attempts made to improve urban infrastructure in Bengaluru and other cities by provisions for metro rail as well as suburban rail and improvement of the roads, including building of grade separators.

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