- Abhijit Nath, NET Correspondent, Tripura
Agartala, January 31, 2022 : The Budget Session had already begun and union Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will place the union budget for 2022-23 fiscal year on February 01. Tripura citizens are expecting initiatives which will reduce the loss incurred during COVID-19 pandemic.
The secretary of the Indian Chamber of Commerce, Tripura Chapter – Sujit Roy spoke regarding the expectation of business class in this state. He said “Like the previous financial year’s budget, we are expecting a people-centric budget that will drive the important sectors to escalate upwards determining the loss during a pandemic”.
Apart from various subsidies for farmers and other sections of the society by the central government, Roy drew attention to consider the situation of businessmen and grant special subsidies for traders.
He said “We feel that the Central government should grant some special subsidy for the businessmen. This will bring big relief for the small-scale businessmen. A separate ministry for businessmen is also necessary significantly as people engaged in different businesses also have their own troubles”.
Roy, who is also the secretary of All Tripura Merchant Association (ATMA) also urged the central government to simplify the procedure of the GST which is significantly the need of the hour.
He said “Shortly, the GST will complete its five years. In this short period, more than 950 amendments have been legislated. It is becoming highly confusing for businessmen. Hence, I feel the central government should make it simpler. Businessmen will be highly benefited if the GST is charged once at the manufacturing level”.
Meanwhile, economical experts expressed their desire that more government investment is necessary for the northeastern region of India which may act as an advantage to boost the local economy.
Dr. Indranil Bhowmik, a renowned Professor of Economics subject, Tripura University (Central) claimed “Unemployment in Tripura is a major problem. Any step to address this issue will be a positive measure. Among the eight North-Eastern states, Manipur is poll-bound and Tripura is going for polls next year, I do have very positive steps from the budget this year.”
“I will be very happy to see some employment generation capacity in the form of a rail coach factory or something to do with the railway infrastructure here in Tripura. Such kinds of infrastructures have a large multiplier effect on employment generation as well as capital investment. This will act as a big boost for the local economy”, he added.
Emphasizing the issue of ‘Ease of Doing Business’ for the local entrepreneurs and Financial Technology, Bhowmik felt that the government is going to take a lot of initiatives in the Financial Technology sector which is known as ‘FinTech’. However, he is not sure what kind of benefits this region is going to receive directly from this sector.
