CII assures Centre of support for J&K's development

New Delhi, Aug 9 (IANS) Days after the Centre revoked the special status to Jammu and Kashmir granted under Article 370, industry chamber CII President-designate Uday Kotak on Friday assured the government that the CII would support investment and development in the newly designated Union Territories (UTs) of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

"CII has told the government and the Finance Minister that it would support initiatives for investment in the UTs," Kotak, who is also the Chief Executive and MD of Kotak Mahindra Bank, said, briefing the media after a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Kotak said that at the meeting, members of the CII delegation suggested the rolling back of the tax surcharge on foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), address the liquidity crunch of micro, small and medium industries (MSMESs) and non banking finance companies (NBFCs), increase public expenditure and lowering costs of capital.

According to Kotak, the Finance Minister has assured that she would consider various suggestions made by CII members and would like to see investments and faster growth across all sectors.

The chairman of CII's renewable energy task force, Sumant Sinha, said the discussions with the Finance Minister centred around the current macroeconomic situation, cost of capital, liquidity, NBFCs and foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and the CII is hopeful of some steps being taken in the immediate future.

Former CII President Rakesh Mittal said the government needs to step up public spending on infrastructure and expressed confidence that government was working towards addressing liquidity issues of the MSMEs and NBFCs.

He also said banks are flush with liquidity but are not lending, which is adding to the credit crisis, while non-payment large outstanding by state-run companies is adding to industry's cashflow problems.

Another former President of CII, Adi Godrej, said the Union Budget did not contain measures for economi revival and the market would be comfortable with a roll-back of the FPI surcharge.