Trade lobbies happy with Pranab?s budget

Industry circles in India were in general happy with Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee?s populist budget as they hailed it as a commendable job under tricky conditions.

With the government battling stiff inflation figures and Opposition flak over corruption among other factors, Mukherjee?s ?tight-rope walk? pleased the majority of players even as certain sectors voiced criticism over the budget that they said ?played it too safe?.

Some experts also peg the FM?s forecast both on growth and fiscal deficit as quite optimistic as he focused generous spending on farm and social schemes even as global energy markets seem shaky at best.

But the poll-facing measures of an increasingly left-leaning Congress party whose reformist camp seems to have taken a bashing from the dozens of scandals have in majority gone down well with trade lobbies.

?Nobody was expecting a big-bang budget anyway. The finance minister had to do a tight-rope walk and has done a commendable and mature job,? said Alok Mukherjea, former president, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).