Manufacturing companies will have to shell out an additional Rs 25,500 crore on 2 per cent increase excise duty for the financial year 2010-11. The rise in excise duty accounts for 21 per cent of profit before tax of manufacturing companies studied here.
In 2009, when I presented the interim Budget in February and the regular Budget in July in this august House, the Indian economy was facing grave uncertainties. Growth had started decelerating and the business sentiment was weak. The economy’s capacity to sustain high growth was under serious threat from the widespread economic slowdown in the developed world.
