Amaravati, Feb 1 (IANS): The Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry Association president K.V.S. Prakash Rao and general secretary Potluri Bhaskar Rao welcomed the 2021-22 Union Budget, calling it growth-oriented and hoped it would revive the ailing economy on Monday.

"AP Chambers welcomes the Union Budget 2021-22. Rs 15,700 crore announced for the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector will help the sector come out of severe distress," said Prakash and Bhaskar in a joint statement.

They welcomed the new definition of small companies by raising their capital base to Rs 2 crore from the current Rs 50 lakh.

Likewise, the businessmen observed that increasing foreign direct investment (FDI) limit from 49 per cent to 74 per cent will attract more capital to the insurance sector.

"Setting up of a development finance institution (DFI) to fund infrastructure projects with an allocation of Rs 20,000 crore is a shot in the arm for the infrastructure sector," they noted.

According to both trade representatives, voluntary scrapping policy announced on the basis of fitness test will boost vehicle sales.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a voluntary scrapping policy of 20 years for personal vehicles and 15 years for commercial vehicles on Monday.

Similarly, they gave a positive review for most other initiatives of the Budget but felt that personal taxation could have been made more beneficial to taxpayers.

"The central government should have done a bit more on personal taxation to benefit the taxpayers. The government should have announced changes to the income tax slabs. But we welcome the decision to exempt senior citizens aged 75 plus from filing I-T returns," they added.