The Karnataka chapter of Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) remained unimpressed with the union budget of the Modi 2.0 government presented by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
The FICCI felt there was little done to address the economicslowdown while the health and education sector did not get the required filip.
The FICCI Karnataka chair and joint managing director ofJyothi Laboratories Ullas Kamath said there was no big ticket initiative in thespeech while he was expecting policies for consumption-led growth.
“We all are experiencing economic slowdown and it istrue and happening whether we admit or not. If you go to a mall here, peopleoutside the shop are much more than the people inside the shop. At some of themalls, the shopkeepers are much more than the people who are getting in andthat is a reality all over the country,” Kamath said during a paneldiscussion on the budget.
He felt that the finance minister would admit boldly aboutthe economic slowdown and the need to fix it.
Kamath opined that the fixing the slowdown could be done byincreasing the consumption for which salaries should have gone up.
He was also critical about the concessions on the housessaying that affordable housing could be possible only if people have money.
“A Rs 1.5-lakh exemption is perfectly fine but you needto have 45 lakh to invest money in the real estate sector. The real estatesector itself is not doing that well,” Kamath said.He expressed displeasure over increasing thesurcharge to 3 per cent on the taxpayers with annual income between Rs twocrore and Rs three crore. The government also has proposed to increase thesurcharge to seven per cent on people with income above Rs five crore annually.