Diamond and textile industries put forth wishlist for annual Budget

Surat, Mar 11 (ANI): With general budget proposals for fiscal 2012-13 to be announced this week, diamond and textile traders in Gujarat's Surat city expect the government to slash central excise duty and an increase in the tax limit.

The secretary of the Jewellery Association of Gujarat, Praveen Nanavati maintained that apart from tax reforms, the budget should have a maintenance policy for the workers of the industry.

"I believe that in this budget, the diamond polishing workers and the designers who add more substance to the look of the diamonds, there should be a maintenance policy for them. There is a great deal of shortage of manpower in the diamond industry. So the industrialists should contribute some, and the government should also contribute the rest and form a maintenance policy. This can lead the diamond polishing business getting converted to jewellery business and become a business for the long run here in Gujarat," said Nanavati.

The textile traders of the city have also raised similar demands hoping for some tax reforms in the current tax slabs slated for the industry in the budget.

"We have put a lot of demands in front of the government regarding the budget so that business can run in a smooth and easy way. Income tax slabs should be relaxed to say no tax till Rs. 2.5-3 lakhs that will help grow small-scale businessmen. Also the slab for Rs. 10,00,000 will remain at ten percent and the business will run in greater flow," said Devkishan Manghani, the president of the Surat Textile Traders Association.

While talking to mediapersons at Ludhiana city, chairman of the Hero Motors Corporation, Sunil Kant Munjal said that this budget would be a test for Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to the rescue of the country's economy.

"Industry itself, is going through a fairly challenging time, both globally and also in India. So it's important that we find a way to address the concerns of industry to keep the economy engine growing. This is the challenge that the Finance Minister faces today. So I expect that this will be the budget that will not be the easiest budget as far as the consumers and industry goes," he said.

India's economic growth slowed to 6.1 percent in the third quarter of the present fiscal year ending in December 2011, the weakest annual pace in almost three years, as high interest rates and rising raw material costs constrained investment and manufacturing.

The Central Statistical Organisation has pegged the GDP growth for 2011-12 at 6.9 per cent, while the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) expects that it would be 7.1 per cent.

The slowdown in the manufacturing sector, coupled with decline in mining and quarrying, is likely to put pressure on the Reserve Bank of India to cut interest rate at its mid-quarter monetary policy review on March 15.

It is expected that Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in his Budget for 2012-13, to be presented on March 16, would announce steps for reviving the economy. (ANI)