Budget 2012: Industry leaders not lapping it up!

Ashish Hemrajani, Founder and CEO, Bigtree entertainment Pvt. Ltd's BookMyShow.com said "The service tax exemption on the entertainment industry is a very encouraging step. It would propel the industry towards bigger and better things. This move can also be viewed as a way to offer some respite to the previously challenging situation the industry faced due to heavy taxation"

NH Bhansali, CEO, Emami Limited, on Finance, Strategy and Business Development says, "The budget has not delivered anything impactful at the macro level. The decision to make GST operational from August 2012, is a boost and if done will be positive. Introduction of GST will increase consumption in the FMCG sector. However, increasing excise duty and service tax to 10-12% will severely impact manufacturing sectors, increase costs and will be inflationary for consumers. Abolition of CST and rationalization of MAT was expected. Also expecting implementation in tackling black money to deter the generation and use of unaccounted money."

Vandana Luthra, Founder and Mentor, VLCC says, "The budget announcement for the financial year 2012-13 is not really on the lines we had hoped for. Most services will become costlier due to the raise in service tax to 12 per cent from the existing 10 per cent. However, as a constituent of the preventive healthcare domain, I was encouraged to note that there is a personal income tax rebate of up to Rs. 5,000 for health check-up. Given the prohibitively high cost of curative healthcare, such steps are indeed welcome and one hopes that in the near future there will be more such initiatives to encourage individuals to invest in preventive healthcare. The Finance Minister has tried to curb the fiscal deficit and gone in for some consolidation measures to improve the government finances and that may have some positive impact on the investment demand, provided interest rates are slashed later. We are disappointed that the Budget has got nothing pertaining to the wellness sector. However, it is heartening to learn that government has given due importance to both urban and rural health care by committing to launch the National Urban Health Mission and allocating higher funds to the National Rural Health Mission."

Dinesh Agarwal, Founder & CEO, IndiaMART.com says, "We welcome the Union Budget 2012-13 presented by the Hon'ble Finance Minister (FM) today. While the FM called for speedy reforms today, the Budget did not indicate much in that direction. The key highlight, however, was "GST' which is now expected to be operational by August 2012. We hope that this timeline is met as it would certainly help address the multiple taxation issue faced by the MSMEs currently. We had also expected some effective mentions to simplify taxation and also consolidate multiple departments to allow better compliance by MSMEs. This still remains to be looked at by the government."

He further said, "Another positive for MSMEs in this budget was allocation of Rs 5,000 cr to SIDBI for venture fund which would enhance equity availability to MSMEs. Exemption of capital gains tax from sale of property when proceeds are used for investment in SME would also help augment funds for SMEs to a certain extent."

"We believe that there was a scope for bolder announcements for MSMEs which could have brought a sea-change in their productivity and growth by eliminating the challenges faced by them, he added."

Dippak Khurana, CEO & Co-Founder, Vserv.mobi says, "The Union Budget 2012 is a balanced one and has put forth many provisions to improve macroeconomic environment and strengthen domestic growth drivers. Although the budget doesn't majorly focus on telecom and allied industries, there are a few provisions which are very crucial from a populist perspective: The exemption of duty on mobile phone parts is surely an ecosystem enabler as it will lower the market prices of phones which are being assembled in India. This will help us achieve not only last mile connectivity but will fuel growth of ancillary sectors such as mobile content development, mobile banking, mobile advertising etc

N. Venkat on Health and Wellness sector says, " There are no major directional and strategic thoughts on health and wellness except in the vaccination programs. Services tax increase from 10 to 12 percent will have negative effect on cosmetic medical services, modern spa which are all wellness services. Also increase in excise will have increase in prices of wellness products. Custom duty reduction of some health foods like soy protein and probiotics is a welcome move. It is disappointing to note that similar reduction is not done in other health foods like whey protein based products. Overall, there is nothing in budget that is encouraging for health and wellness sector".