Bhubaneswar: The Utkal Chamber of Commerce & Industries(UCCI) Saturday organized a discussion on the presentation of Union Budget 2020-21.

UCCI president Ramesh Mahapatra, while responding to the proposed Budget provisions, rated the Budget at 6 on a scale of 1 to 10. He laid stress on the fact that the deposit and lending rate should have been reduced so as to encourage the money-flow and more investment in Mutual funds, capital markets etc. He also welcomed the proposals in agricultural development and on blue-revolution i.e. on the incentives on fish production. Health care facilities on PPP mode in the district levels as proposed were also welcomed by him. He was also happy with the proposal of WSHGs to have storage facilities to preserve locally produced perishable commodities. Mahapatra also hailed the proposed Sagar Mitra Jojna.

VP Commerce A. K. Sharda greeted the Budget proposals as a whole and particularly the proposals on agricultural and MSME sectors. He also hailed the tax audit proposal in MSME sectors as proposed to increase from 1 crore to 5 crores. He also appreciated the proposed tax holiday for the Real Estate developers as it is to be extended by one year. He also welcomed the Kisan Rail Yojna as well as the Agricultural Udaan Scheme. He rated the Budget proposals at 7 in  the scale of 1 to 10.

Ashok Chinchela and Tarun Agarwalla also welcomed all the provisions in all sectors and hailed the huge allocation figures and wished that there should be proper implementation of the programmes at the field levels to fetch the desired results. They also hailed the proposal to simplify the IT laws by removing several confusing and over-lapping provisions.

Brahmananda Mishra also lauded almost all the provisions and particularly he was happy with the increase in import duty in respect of sophisticated instruments on health care as this will be a boost for the “Make in India”. India in turn will produce those instruments and the multinational companies will invest in India to produce such instruments. He was of the view that the proposed integrated farming in rain-fed areas will be expanded.

Joint secretary Sanjeev Mahapatra while hailing the proposals on MSME sectors also welcomed the proposal enhancing the insurance cover from Rs.1.00 lac to Rs.5.00 lacs in respect of bank deposits. He also welcomed adequate fund’s allocation under clean air programmes. He also lauded the massive budget allocation of Rs.85,000 crores for SC & ST developments.

Participating in the discussions, Priyadarshi Mishra, an NRI, also lauded all the proposals and on the proposed provision in technological development. More particularly, the proposals in Agricultural sector to boost production, storage and safe transportation under insulated vans in trains and under the Krushi Udaan Scheme. He was of the view that by the proposed budget provisions middle class will be largely benefitted.

M.V. Rao also welcomed all the provisions proposed for all sectors.