Showering all praise for Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee for his latest budget, the industry compared him with ace batsman Sachin Tendulkar, whose capacity to score runs is increasing with time. The comparison was made by Sudhir Jalan, a past president of FICCI, during a post-budget interactive session with the finance minister at Vigyan Bhawan here Saturday.

The interactions had representatives from the three apex chambers of commerce - CII, FICCI and ASSOCHAM.

During the meet the finance minister expressed the hope that the direct tax code (DTC) will be implemented by April, 2011. He mentioned that the revised draft will be published for feedback of the public on the finance ministry website and will be placed before parliament in the monsoon session. He hoped that the parliamentary committee will give its go ahead by the winter session.

The industry expressed some concerns in areas of revenue deficit, increased minimum alternate tax (MAT) and increased excise and service tax.

The industry also gave suggestions to make mandatory reporting requirements of agriculture income beyond Rs.5 lakh, increase in incentive for saving and need for physical monitoring of schemes rather than expenditure based monitoring. An industry representative also called for fixing of responsibility for delay in the 3G auction.