Mumbai, Feb 28 (UNI) The Bombay Metal Exchange (BME) today rued that the Small and Medium scale industries have been ignored at the expense of the agricultural sector in the Union Budget 2007-08.

The President of the Bombay Metal Exchange, Mr Rohit V Shah told UNI, ''In this budget there has been no major change except an increase in Education Cess to 3 per cent from 2 per cent. The Finance Minister has given more importance to farmers and the agricultural sector and has overlooked the Small scale and Medium scale Industries. He forgets that we also play an important role in the growth of the country. Without support from the industrial sector, growth and revenue from trade and industries, the Finance Minister cannot distribute benefits to the various sectors.'' ''From the current budget, it appears that without committing suicide, the Small scale and Medium scale Industry owners will not get any relief. The Finance Minister has failed to understand the problem of Industries in the country by not considering the demands of trade for differential duty between raw material&finished material, reduction in excise duty, refund of duty (CENVAT) upto 40 per cent for non-utilisation etc,'' he lamented.

''Even in case of Income Tax ,the salaried class would have been happy if the exemption limit would have been raised upto Rs 1.5 lacs per year,'' he added.

UNI