A fillip to consumer demand

Accelerating manufacturing growth and employment creation, which will undoubtedly be helped to an extent by the Budget, also needs a review of GST rates

- RC BHARGAVA, CHAIRMAN, MARUTI SUZUKI INDIA

inflation is kept in check so that the additional income with taxpayers from tax relief increases their ability to buy more goods and services. The prudent fiscal management by the government is very welcome. To become more competitive, manufacturing also requires costs of setting up and operating factories to keep reducing. The Centre has made excellent progress in this area. Efforts to make doing business easier have to continue and be implemented more vigorously. Regulations and processes of getting various approvals need to be revisited and made simpler so that the time and effort needed for compliance is reduced. Technology needs to be used in much greater measure to quicken decision-making. Since much of this lies in the domain of state governments, they have to realise that time is money and reducing costs for private entrepreneurs is in national interest. Along with more competitive manufacturing, consumer demand has to gr