Budget comment: T T Ashok, Chairman, Southern Region, Confederation of Indian Industry

“I’m happy that a positive step has been made towards the implementation of GST. A network is being established which should help in gathering information towards the eventual implementation. GST will have a huge impact on manufacturing states like Tamil Nadu. But at CII, we think that GST is the way to go forward.

Regarding infrastructure, we’re looking at huge spending on this regard. The point here is that the Finance Minister hinted at 50% contribution towards this investment from the private sector. The infrastructure bonds should be helpful in this matter. Expediting the highway project is a good move.

We’re delighted that one of the national manufacturing zones is going to be set up in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

When it comes to manufacturing, we would have been happy had the excise duty kept stable at 10%. We’ll have to look at this raise in a more detailed manner.

On the whole, the Budget is well on expected lines. We were not too sure what the tone was going to be. I think it is positive, the intention is there to take the growth agenda forward. We’re looking forward to see what unravels during the year.”