Commenting on the budget, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry president Harsh Pati Singhania said, ''The finance minister has done a tightrope walk over a huge distance in a difficult situation of a large fiscal deficit and a steep fall in growth rate. And he has done a good walk. It is a daring budget and a job well done in the most trying circumstances.

''The Finance Minister's growth strategy relies on three triggers – higher investments, leaving more money in the hands of consumers and increasing agriculture production to hold the price line. Such a comprehensive approach will help India return to the 9 per cent growth trajectory soon,'' said Singhania.

The overall thrust of Union Budget 2009-10, has been on promoting growth and FICCI appreciates the government's decision to continue with the stimulus measures.

"Some of the positives that we can pick up from the budget include abolition of the fringe benefits tax and the commodity transactions tax, continued commitment to introducing a goods and services tax from 1 April 1 2010, larger investment in the agriculture sector particularly on developing the cold chain infrastructure, greater investments in the infrastructure sector and social sectors and an even higher target for agriculture credit in the year 2009-10," Singhania said..

The exporting community too has got further support in the form of extension of the interest subvention scheme, higher allocation for the market development assistance scheme and simplification of the service tax refunds mechanism. Sectors like tourism, textiles and health that generate huge employment did not see many of their demands getting addressed in the budget, Singhania said.

However, an area where FICCI expressed disappointment was disinvestment, where it would have liked the government to come out with some concrete proposals. Although the finance minster alluded to the disinvestment process, no clear roadmap was laid out in this regard, Singhania said.