VIJAYAWADA:The Andhra Pradesh chapter of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII-AP) has said that quite contrary to its expectations, the Union Budget has not offered much to the cash-starved residuary State.
Expressing their opinion at the customary post-Budget press conference here on Saturday, CII Andhra Pradesh chapter chairman Suresh Rayudu Chitturi said there was not much for the state in the Budget except the announcement of an IIM. Though people of the state had expected the Union Finance Minister to announce the promised special status to the state and also keep the promise of bridging the over `15,000 cr fiscal deficit, he had made no such announcement, he pointed out.
Suresh said the delay in announcing the special status for AP was costing the state heavily. A big manufacturing company, which was interested in investing in the state, had gone off to the North East due to the Centre’s dilly-dallying over the special status issue. There was still no clarity on the central aid to the state, though Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had on an earlier occasion assured the state that the Centre would keep all the promises that it had made in the AP Reorganisation Act.
Some measures announced by the Union Finance Minister would surely help in ease of doing business in the country, which was not the case earlier. Announcements to cut down the cumbersome procedures in giving permissions, doing away with wealth tax, GST and other such announcements were welcome moves, he said.
CII Vijayawada Zone chairman LVS Rajasekhar said certain announcements made in the Budget might help in increasing individual investments in housing. “Once we analyse the Budget in detail, we will know how the infrastructure sector is going to gain or lose,” he said.
Industrialist Harish Chandra Prasad found the Budget quite contrary to the expectations. An announcement to help the irrigation sector would have helped the Polavaram project, he felt. “However it is now a national project, so from state point of view, the Budget is disappointing. Unfortunately, the Finance Minister has not even mentioned Amaravathi as a heritage site,” he said.