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| Saturday, 20 November 2004 |
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Business community hails Budget The business community yesterday hailed Budget 2005 as "one of the best in recent times" that gives relief to the masses while providing a host of incentives to the private sector. A cross section of members of the business community interviewed by the Daily News said the "home-grown" budget has addressed the concerns of all strata of society and aimed at economic growth through the rejuvenation of local industries. Asoka D. Z. Gunasekara, Chairman, The National Chamber of Commerce of Commerce in Sri Lanka described the Budget as "excellent" and "one of the best" in recent times. "The Finance Minister has looked into almost all the areas which we drew his attention to. The NCCSL is very conscious that the budget presented yesterday was formulated at a time the economy was under going stress due to variety of reasons and the proposals have to address the aspirations of a large cross section of stakeholders whilst ensuring increased government revenue and providing a platform to the private sector to be a significant partner in the country's development," he told the Daily News. The NCCSL had the opportunity prior to the budget to make submissions to the Government based on expectations expressed by members of various sectors and these submissions followed discussion with policy makers. "The key attribute of the budget is that it has specifically addressed a very wide range of stakeholders with emphasis on development and utilisation of local resources. From the Chambers' prospective proposals made for the upliftment of the SME sector in general, the local software industry, agriculture and dairy, renewable energy, export sector with special attention to the apparel sector and prawn farming are most welcome. The recognition that special attention requires to be paid to the development of organic agriculture and the apparel sector in the post quota environment is also welcome. Lalith Kotelawala, Chairman, Ceylinco Consolidated said the budget prepared by those with foresight. "It deals with a multitude of problems and lays a very definite direction for the country's economy to move forward. Instead of always following the ideals of the IMF and the World Bank we have proved that our own people can prepare a budget which suits our own country. I consider this budget as an incentive for the business community and the public." "The first objective of this budget which is to raise the living standards of the poor has been achieved. A budget which is prepared by foreigners would only make the rich more rich and the poor more poor," Kotelawala added. "However, there are two things to achieve now. One is good management to make sure that all these proposals are implemented. And the other thing is that no success can be achieved unless a negotiated settlement is reached to solve the ethnic crisis." Ranjith Hettiarachchi, Ceylon National Chamber of Industries, Immediate Past Chairman said the business community can expect consistency as it is a three year strategy paper. "Setting up of the SME bank will be a tremendous boost to the small and medium scale enterprise sector," Hettiarachchi said. "Making public servants pay taxes will give recognition to them. Another important measure is pushing government revenue to 17.2 percent of the GDP from 16.6. There were good proposals for apparel, agriculture and IT sectors," he added. Rienzie T. Wijetillake, Chairman and Managing Director of Hatton National Bank praised the Budget for not giving shocks to the genuine tax payer. "However, I would have preferred if the Budget provided more relief to the North and East for rehabilitation," he said. Dr. Lalith Gamage, Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology noted that the local software industry will immensely benefit by this budget. If companies will be able to use locally produced software there will be a deduction of 100 percent tax. "The budget will also help the Research and Development projects. The SME bank will be able to fund companies engaged in R&D projects. There are measures to take IT to the villages too in this budget," he added. The Small and Medium Entrepreneurs Lanka Organisation thanked President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and her government including Finance Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama for taking concrete measures through the UPFA's maiden Budget for the development and protection of the Small and Medium Enterprise sector. President and chief organiser of the Small and Medium Entrepreneurs Lanka Organisation D. G. W. Muhamdiramge in a press release issued yesterday said that the UPFA government has now implemented more than 75 percent of the proposals put forward by it for the launching, maintenance, development and protection of SMEs. He said it was way back in 2001 that his organisation put forward a set of proposals for the development of SMEs to the President. "The UPFA has taken steps to implement more than 75 percent of the proposals made by the organisation. Only a single issue - that of obtaining credit facilities for SMEs without collateral remained to be solved." |
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