The finance minister has increased the compensation package from 15 days to 45 days for the workers. This move takes care of the workers' interest. Import duty has been increased on several agricultural and industrial products, which will protect the domestic market. He also ignored the employment potential and has done this for the third time in a row. Hong Kong, for example, was in big trouble due to the Asian crisis.
Tourism is a great opportunity to bring foreign direct investment into the country.
But it has been completely ignored and I think this is shameful. It is risky to make a total assessment on the basis of the speech' Only the best portion of the budget is presented in the finance minister's speech. The adverse things come to notice only from the budget documents. The finance minister spoke about the expenditure controls but no proper plan has been mentioned. He said that three per cent of the government's staff will retire and only one per cent will be recruited.