July 10, 2014, New Delhi - A press release issued by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Director General, Mr Chandrajit Banerjee, on Budget 2014-15, compliments the Finance Minister on a pragmatic and extensive Budget that lays out a medium term vision for the economy and meets industry expectations on growth and employment creation. The CII release states: "In its first Budget, the new Government has activated a number of directional changes that would stabilise the economy, boost investments, and encourage savings with a view to reviving GDP growth to 7-8% in the near term. A roadmap for fiscal consolidation and fiscal prudence has been defined to bring fiscal deficit to 3% by 2016-17, with stress on reviving all sectors of the economy including agriculture, power and infrastructure, manufacturing, and services. Tax stability and rationalization is addressed widely, according high importance to restoring investor confidence and boosting sentiments."

"CII is happy to note the encouragement to manufacturing through various measures such as opening defense, insurance, and e-commerce sectors to FDI, correcting inverted duty structures, setting up of industrial clusters and promoting entrepreneurship. Many CII suggestions such as reducing investment allowance, changing definition of MSME, setting up a start-up fund, and overhaul of the subsidy regime have found mention in the Budget. We believe that the Budget would set the tone for quick recovery of GDP growth and generation of new jobs and hope that it will be followed up by close monitoring and implementation of announcements," concludes the CII release.