Small & Medium Enterprises hail sops in the Union Budget 2009-2010: FISME Poll 
 
The current budget has great news for small and medium size enterprises. As per the recently concluded poll result of Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME), the majority of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India have welcomed the Union Budget 2009-2010 announcement that the enterprises having annual turnover less than 40 lakh will have an option to declare their income at eight percent and there is no need to maintain any books of accounts.

“Sixty per cent of the respondents reported that the budget announcement will indeed reduce the burden of book keeping and save the smaller SMEs from the harassment by tax authorities,” said the survey conducted by the Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME). 

It said 57 per cent of the firms still believe that the budget announcement will not reduce the ‘regulatory tax burden and ease compliance’ on the smaller businesses.

“Double taxation is still prevalent in many ways. There are ample cases where service tax and VAT are both being levied. The trading community is most harassed because their margins do not leave a scope of adjusting extra expenses on compliances,” it added. 

According to the survey, 61 per cent of the participants view the provision of Rs 4000 crore to SIDBI for refinancing is not going to enhance flow of funds towards MSMEs.

 “What mechanism will be adopted by SIDBI and whether the interest benefit will be given to the SMEs through this scheme is yet to be seen. The corpus is peanuts compared to the size of India's MSME segment and its needs,” the survey said. 

However, 50 per cent of the SMEs in the survey said that the demand of goods and services after being given special attention to the social sector in the Union Budget 2009-2010 will have a bearing on the overall economy. “The spending will push demand in infrastructure related sectors,” the report highlighted.