Failed to meet eco survey pointers: Agri and All Trade Chamber
The report made its case for “deregulation”, allowing businesses to focus on their core mission of enhancing business activities without being locked into various regulations of taxation and other enactments, they said.;
President of Madurai-based Agri and All Trade Chamber S Rethinavelu
MADURAI: Agri and All Trade Chamber (AATC), based out of Madurai, expressed disappointment with the Union Budget 2025-26, presented on Saturday.
Several members of the Chamber said they had expected a different Budget with revolutionary proposals. The expectation was high on the basis of the Economic Survey for 2024-2025, report they said.
The report made its case for “deregulation”, allowing businesses to focus on their core mission of enhancing business activities without being locked into various regulations of taxation and other enactments, they said.
It is disappointing that Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman did not concentrate on various important recommendations made in the Economic Survey and chose the beaten path, said S Rethinavelu, president of AATC. When our GDP’s growth is expected to hit a four-year low at 6.4% this fiscal year 2024-25 as against 7% plus growth recorded in the preceding three years and private investments not picking up with a fall in consumption, this is not a smart move, the industrial representative lamented.
Domestic economic growth couldn’t be achieved unless the business sector, especially, the MSME sector, is made free from complying with procedures and regulations at enormous cost and time, the chamber chief said.
De-regulation has to be made in agricultural marketing by abolishing market cess and permit, he urged. Doing away with impractical conditions being imposed by the Pollution Control Board, abolishing cumbersome procedures under FSSAI rules, and withdrawing the Essential Commodities Act, which places limits on stocks, are areas left unattended, Rethinavelu said.
Submission of returns, levying tax on the basis of the Legal Metrology Act and above all, doing away with ‘implementation terrorism’ prevailing in GST were other stuff expected by the business sector representative. All these regulations have a dampening effect on entrepreneurship, particularly in the MSME sector, Rethinavelu said.
The GST Rules and Regulations in the present form have completed their ‘shelf life,’ he said. Citing these, he said the Chamber expected announcement of the second generation reforms in GST, but in vain.