With no specific announcements for Jammu and Kashmir, the Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has failed to impress people, trade and industrial bodies in the state.
Unlike in the past when the Union Budget (since 2014) had announced J&K-specific projects, the last two years have seen a different trend.
This year, the Budget has focused on strengthening the agriculture, rural development, health, education, employment, micro, small and medium enterprises and infrastructure sectors.
“There is a lot of confusion over how the industries, especially medium, small and micro enterprises, will get the benefit. We appreciate the announcement for a skill development scheme but the incentives announced in the past have not reached the industries in the state. Unless state-specific measures are there, credit support, capital and interest subsidy will be denied to J&K,” said Lalit Mahajan, president, Bari Brahmana Industries Association (BBIA).
While expressing support to the agriculture-specific measures initiated by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, a farmer leader in RS Pura, Tejinder Singh, said the success of the Budget announcements would depend on their implementation.
“Increasing the minimum support price for all crops to 1.5 times of their production cost is a welcome step but there should have been separate features for areas considered backward in India which include J&K. Only time will tell how these measures will be implemented,” said Tejinder Singh.
Chamber and Commerce and Industry (CCI), Jammu, president, Rakesh Gupta said they were expecting a major relief for the trade and business sectors in J&K, which are under pressure due to continued turmoil and facing stress post the goods and services tax implementation.
“We were hopeful of a special package for the industries on the pattern of the north-eastern states. Special social security provisions should have been announced for the revival of the trade, industry and tourism sectors. These are missing,” said Gupta.
The Valley-based business fraternity said it was disappointed as there were no Kashmir-specific announcements and that their suggestions had not been incorporated in the Budget.
“There is nothing Jammu and Kashmir-specific in this Budget. We for long have been demanding for provisions to be made in the Union Budget for investment insurance —- to provide security for the investment made by outsider investors in Kashmir. Being a conflict zone, investors are not willing to invest in Kashmir without the insurance,” said Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) president Javid Ahmad Tenga.
Pointing out that Kashmir had suffered massive business and infrastructure losses in the 2014 floods, Tenga said: “The state government gave the preliminary estimate of losses to the tune of Rs 44,000 crore to the Union Government to ensure rehabilitation of business and other activities but to our dismay nothing towards that has been provided in this Budget.”
He said they were also expecting the Finance Minister to make necessary provisions in the present Budget “to bear the cost of return of J&K-based power projects by the NHPC to the state and as a part of the compensation for the Indus water usage”. However, Tenga said the KCCI appreciated the provisions made for the health and education sectors of the country.
Kashmir Economic Alliance (KEA) chairman Muhammad Yasin Khan too termed the Budget disappointing while regretting the lack of mention of ‘power crisis’ in the state. “There is nothing for us, the Budget is disappointing. We do not have expectations anymore. Businesses in Kashmir have been destroyed by the Government of India. There is no relief for the business community. Anyway, there is nothing in their (Centre’s) kitty due to demonetisation and GST….so they have nothing to offer,” Khan said.
“The state is going through power crisis. For long, we have been expecting return of power projects to the state…there could have at least been a mention of this in the Budget,” he added.
Kashmir Traders Federation (KTF) chief spokesperson Aijaz Shahdhar regretted that there was no mention of Kashmir in the Budget.
Budget fails to impress as no state-specific bounties, ‘Kashmir not even mentioned… disappointing’
