VIJAYAWADA: Commenting on the interim budget presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, AP Chambers president Potluri Bhaskara Rao said as 2024 is an election year, there were a lot of expectations on some changes in direct and indirect taxes. But contrary to the expectations, the Union government did not announce any changes in the direct and indirect taxes.
“The government has given much importance to infrastructure development,” he said.
Bhaskara Rao felt that allocation of Rs 11.11 lakh crore for the development of roads, railways, airports and ports will generate a lot of employment and boost trade.
The corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore with 50 year interest-free loans can foster research and development, thereby promoting innovation, he observed.
The Finance Minister has announced three major railway corridors - the port connectivity corridor, the energy, mineral and cement corridor, and the high traffic density corridor. These three economic corridor programmes can reduce logistic costs, he felt.
“The Union government has stated that it will expand and strengthen the EV ecosystem by supporting manufacturing and charging infrastructure and encourage the greater adoption of e-buses for public transport networks through payment security mechanism. The Finance Minister has announced that policy priority of the government is to provide training for MSMEs to compete globally and the government intends to achieve this objective through the Skill India Mission’s initiative to train 1.4 crore youth. These initiatives can help reduce the skill-gap faced by the industry,” he felt.
