Budget focuses on reviving economy by boosting spending: FAPCII

Hailing the Union Budget, Federation of Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FAPCCI) on Monday stated that the budget focused on healthcare and infrastructure to revive the economy by boosting spending, job-creation and agricultural sector. CV Atchut Rao, president of FAPCCI, said in a statement that it is also a welcome feature of the budget that there are no changes in direct taxes in addition to measures such as exemption to senior citizens of 75 years who have pension and interest income from filing the IT returns, dispute resolution scheme for small taxpayers through special committee and exemption from tax audit limit doubled to Rs 10 crore turnover for companies doing most of their business through digital modes.

He said the equity market will be enthused with changes in capital gains taxes or STT and the move towards 'Single Securities Market Code' is a welcome step.

The introduction of agriculture infrastructure cess on fuel—the price of petrol will increase by Rs 2.5 per liter while diesel will get costlier by Rs 4 per liter—will have cascading effect on the prices of the agriculture and agri-based products.

Referring to the specific proposals to Andhra Pradesh, Rao said that it was sad that except Railways freight corridor projects—East Coast Corridor from Kharagpur to Vijaywada, North-South Corridor from Itarsi to Vijayawada, and fishing harbour hub at Visakhapatnam, the budget has no mention of any new projects to Andhra Pradesh.

The FAPCCI president also welcomed the proposals of extending the tax holiday for startups as well as capital gains exemption by one more year to March 31, 2022 to amend the definition of small companies by increasing their threshold for capitalisation from a maximum of Rs 50 lakh now to a maximum of Rs 2 crore and turnover threshold from a maximum of Rs 2 crore to a maximum of Rs 20 crore. These proposals surely give a boost to entrepreneurs looking to incorporate in India, and the government is looking to increase capitalisation for Indian small companies and startups as it looks to boost entrepreneurship in the country.

Flexibility to convert a company to any firm limited liability partnerships (LLP) and others is another welcome step in ease of doing business.