PANAJI: Goa industry has hailed the state budget announced by the Chief Minister, Mr Digambar Kamat as a `progressive budget’. Raising the medical insurance for Goan up to Rs 60,000 is too good to be true, said Mr Raj Vaidya of Hindu Pharmacy.
The present Mediclaim is of no use as government hospitals here don’t have the facilities for treating various cases, he said.
The 2010-11 annual plan size of Rs 2,550 crore is 11.38 per cent increase. This year’s target is 12 per cent growth rate.
The CM has set the growth by delivering a highly political budget in which he has involved all players in level playing field. The Rs 500 crore allocations for roads in mining belts is very practical to the problem. "Every time the state government raises taxes, we get the idea they are planning some development," said Mr Samer Salgaocar, director of Salgaocar Mining Industries Pvt Ltd said. He said creating Dharbandora as a logistic hub is the ideal planning.
Employing 1000 Goans to man the beaches is the best public relation for Goa, said Mr Earnest Dias vice president of the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG). He said presently we have people from all over India as guides, confusing the tourists. With locals interacting directly with tourist, they will get the right impression about Goa, he said.
The list for expansion and to enter Goa industrial areas is getting longer, said Mr A D Naik, managing director of Goa-IDC. The good news that unutilised industrial land and the non notified SEZ land be given to big industries is too good, he said, as companies such as Bosch and Putzmeister which have applied for 50,000 sqm and 30,000 sqm respectively is good news for them. And sanctioned land that has not yet been utilised will come back to Goa-IDC, he said.
The Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry welcomed government’s decision to create a new taluka at Dharbandora. This decision will help in better and effective administration as well as focused development of this backward area, it said.
Of concern to chamber is the government’s proposal to increase the VAT rate from 4 per cent to 5 per cent on schedule ‘B’ items which cover basically essential commodities and medicines. Further, the proposal to levy 5 per cent infrastructure cess on room rent will affect the growth of tourism industry.
The GCCI suggests that if levied, this amount can be solely utilised for developing the tourism infrastructure in the state. The government has also decided to create a Rs 500 crore fund, over a period of 5 years, by taxing the mining industry. Coming as it does on top of the proposed environment cess, for which the Bill is yet to be introduced, this additional cess will impose a hefty burden on the mining industry.
