Goa industry disillusioned with union budget
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 29 February 2016 14:24 ISTNobody was seen jubilant at the Surendrababu Timblo hall when union finance minister Arun Jaitley ended his budget speech today.
“Goa got nothing special in spite of so many representations made”, was the common reaction at the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
“In fact it is more focussed on the primary sector”, said Ralph D’Souza, an hotelier and honorary secretary of the GCCI.
He however appreciated the effort of Narendra Modi government to lift the economy from grassroot level, but said demands of service industry, especially the hospitality industry, could also be heard by the BJP government.
The most critical among all was Narayan alias Nana Bandekar, the president of the GCCI.
“We have three MPs elected from Goa and one MP as the defence minister. We expected our problems would be resolved’, he said.
He also informed that all the business-related organisations including GCCI, Tourism, ore exporters etc had given their respective recommendations to the centre.
Bandekar however plans to go into more details of the budget speech and see if in any manner the centre has tried to meet Goa’s demands.
Sandeep Bhandari, the GCCI vice president and a chartered accountant, said the only benefits are those which would be enjoyed by the rest of India.
D’Souza, an hotelier, said Goa however could benefit since Jaitley has made more provision to strengthen the rail and road network in the country.
“More stress on inter-state travel and boosting exports could help the tourism industry getting more business. Let’s hope so”, he said.
The industry also does not hope much in terms of boosting Goa’s IT industry, except three-year tax exemptions announced for the IT start-ups.
Jervis Pereira, who runs an incubator at GITIC as its director, termed it as a vanilla budget with no solace to the youngsters who are already working on start-ups.
“It’s only for those who will register from April and not the ones working hard for the last four years. Also there is nothing to streamline the telecommunication network and the alternate source of energy, which is a major headache for the IT professionals today”, said Pereira.
What they meant by Goa didn't get anything.What about reduction in export duty on ore.What more is needed. Hoteliers and tourism industry has to be attended by State govt not by centre. Nana Bandekar has become anti BJP of late and talks accordingly.