India Inc wants SAD to stay

However, the industry leaders were split on the issue of five per cent import duty with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) advocating its retention and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) opposed it. Interestingly, Rahul Bajaj, chairman of Bajaj Auto and Mukesh Ambani of the Reliance Group favoured continuance of 5 per cent import duty.

Bajaj was also critical of the current economic situation and said, "I do not see any light at the end of the tunnel". He further added thatpolitical uncertainty was not making the situation any better.

Bajaj pressed for price parity between petrol and diesel. He said that while diesel was available cheaply, the price of petrol was artificially high in India. "Diesel car sales have not yet made a dent on the scooter market in India, but the day is not far when this will happen. So the differential between price of petrol and diesel needs to be reduced" he said.

Hari Shanker Singhania, president, JK Organisation, felt that the Government should lay stress on infrastructure projects. "Until the bigger projects start, the Government can start smaller infrastructure projects" he said.

Singhania also raised the point that fiscal deficit should not be curbed at the cost of cutting expenditure as this will worsen the economic scenario. On the other hand the government should address the problem of revenue deficit, he added.

Yogi Deveshwar, chairman of ITC Limited, said "We are looking for economic reforms from the finance minister so that we cantake-on international competition". Shashi Ruia, chairman, Essar group, wanted the government to concentrate on boosting steel exports.

Ranbaxy chairman Parvinder Singh said that an annual outlay of Rs 500 crore should be available for supporting R&D efforts in the pharmaceutical industry, besides soft loans. Also, royalty earned on licensing of technology should be made tax free, just like export industry, he added.

Tata group chairman Ratan Tata said the budget should be a statement of the government’s policy and should create optimism.

CII president Rajesh Shah said that the industry expected the new budget to create an overall sense of confidence and optimism. "Let the budget be a statement of political consensus on how the government expenditure will be cut," he added.

FICCI president Sudhir Jalan pleaded for rationalisation of central excise rate structure should receive priority.

Assocham president K P Singh suggested that the focus of the budget should be on employment generation throughdemand led growth and reforms with a human face.

PHDCCI president Ashok Khanna asked for special focus on the small and medium enterprises, particularly about providing finance to the SMEs. Among other things the industry leaders also pleaded for reduction of number of excise duty rates to five slabs. It suggested restoration of 100 per cent admissibility of Modvat credit instead of 95 per cent at present.

The industrialists also underlined the need for dispensing with differential excise regime for branded and un-branded products as it was hampering participation of organised sector in the food-processing sector.

Finance minister Sinha in his opening remarks recalled the steps taken by the government to strengthen and reinforce the process of economic reforms over the past months. Sinha stressed that "this should dispel the impressions regarding slowdown in the tempo of reforms."

The minister admitte that there has been a slow down in the growth of the economy, but added, "there are some positivesigns which augur well for the economy." He said that "there are comfortable foreign exchange reserves and inflation rate is decelerating."

The finance minister also said that the government would endeavour to achieve the fiscal deficit target by controlling expenditure and the disinvestment target too would be met.