Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel praised the first budget of Mr. Modi’s government, saying it was “all-inclusive and took care of the needs of all the citizens of India.”
“Kandla port development is a very good step to boost the import-export business, whereas, the textile clusters in Surat and Kutch will not only boost employment in the region but also revive sick units and strengthen the existing players. A cluster approach will also help them to adopt technology in the manufacturing process to compete with global players,” Bhagyesh Soneji, Chairperson, Assocham Gujarat Council, said.
With an eye on Surat’s diamond industry, the Centre has fully exempted pre-forms of precious and semi-precious stones from basic customs duty to encourage exports. On the other hand, it has marginally increased the duty from 2 to 2.5 per cent on semi-processed, half-cut or broken diamonds, cut and polished diamonds and coloured gemstones.
“Broken and polished diamonds are imported as well as manufactured locally. The budget does not give any big benefit, but increasing the duty will discourage import. The plus point is the government has paid attention to the diamond industry. Let’s hope in the future more of our demands are met,” Pravin Nanavati, the Association’s former president, said.
However, the gold jewellery industry was upset with the Centre for the lack of any thrust for the sluggish sector.
“The budget does not address our demand for reducing the import duty on gold to curb the massive problem of smuggling. In Gujarat, manufacturing of gold jewellery is chiefly done in Ahmedabad and Rajkot. Secondly, millions of workers were looking at the new government to address their sufferings due to job losses in the last several months,” said Haresh Soni, Chairman, All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation.
Gujarat is home to the world’s largest ship-breaking yard at Alang in Bhavnagar district. The budget has reduced the basic customs duty on ships imported for breaking from five to 2.5 per cent.
“This is an excellent decision. It will increase the number of ships coming to Alang and put ship-breakers in a better position to compete with Bangladesh, Pakistan and China, besides generating more employment,” Jivraj Patel, Ship Recycling Industries Association of India, told The Hindu.
In other measures, the budget envisages the development of a special economic zone at Kandla port and setting up of textile mega clusters in Surat and Kutch districts, among others. The budget has set aside Rs. 200 crore for former Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s project of building the largest statue of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel. Ultra mega solar power projects have also been proposed for Gujarat, among other States.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley aggressively underscored Mr. Modi’s ‘Gujarat model’ saying, “Gujarat has demonstrated successfully the ‘Rurban’ Development model of urbanisation of the rural areas.”
The Gujarat government’s ‘Beti Bachao Yojana’ to address the issue of gender imbalance and ‘Jyoti Gram Yojana’ for providing power to every house has been proposed at a national level.
