JAIPUR: The budget announcements would be important for several reasons. This is the last full-time budget of the current tenure of the Gehlot government. Assembly elections will be announced in October next year. So the next budget will be only for six months.
In the meeting of Tax Consultancy Committee, chief minister had invited suggestions from farmers, youth, social institutions, students, women entrepreneurs, industry and trade. “Rajasthan’s stone industry has huge revenue and employment potential. The state government should lobby the GST Council to reduce the GST on marble and granite. The government should get the environment clearance before giving mining leases to facilitate lease holders,” said Rakesh Kumar Gupta, vice-chairman, Centre for development of Stones.
The centre is encouraging the purchase of electrical vehicles. Suresh Agarwal, president, Federation of Rajasthan Trade and Industry, said, “The state government should also issue scrap policy like the Centre. Similarly, there is a need to announce incentive policy in the budget for scrapping of old vehicles and junking vehicles lying in police stations for years.” He further said that the government has announced the Vyapari Kalyan Board four years ago, but the process of its formation has not started yet. “Its formation should be announced in this budget,” added Agarwal.
Like the farmers, a budget announcement for providing cheap electricity to the industries in the night time will be a great step given the high cost of power the industry has to shell out.
Digvijay Dhabria, chairman, PHDCCI-Rajasthan, said, “We are ready to compete with China, but the logistics cost in China is 3-4%. In India, it is around 13%. Therefore, the government should announce a policy in the budget to reduce the logistics cost.”
Non-availability of dumping yards in industrial is causing several difficulties to the units. Hansraj Agarwal, president, Jaitpura Industries Association, said, “We do not have a dumping yards here due to which many industrial areas are seen as a complete dumping yard.”
