Rama Krishna S Managing Director, Balaji Mariline

We expect a progressive budget for many reasons. The first and foremost being a service industry, has contributed immensely to the exchequer by way of service tax.

Now under the GST regime, the contribution would be much more especially with the unhindered credit that is being transferred with every transaction which is a very positive. The ambiguity of service tax also gets nullified.

The government saw the reasons for nullifying the GST on freight for both imports and exports both by sea and air which again is a positive sign of progressiveness and development. One big factor is that the cargo industry is predominantly a MSME sector that employs great number of people. Logistics being the main forte for any economy is recognised by the government through the appointment of a special secretary in Ministry of Commerce. This in itself is an indication of recognition for logistics sector.

We as a logisticians, expect that the budget would give benefit to MSME sector which in turn would benefit us largely. Secondly, both the government and private sector contributed immensely in ease of doing business which jumped the industry ranking from 146 to 100, which is phenomenal.

Expectations: Benefit for MSME sector.

Decrease in rate of interest for infrastructure like warehousing, capital goods for logistics sector.

Overall reduction in corporate tax to enlarge the basket of taxation.