New Delhi, Feb. 27: Terming Economic Survey for 2005-06 as “bold and pragmatic”, India Inc today welcomed suggestions on removing bottlenecks in the infrastructure sector and hastening the pace of tax reforms.

“Suggestions to remove bottlenecks in the infrastructure sector and increase the pace of tax reforms are correctly envisaged in the survey to give the economy and industry a shot in the arm,” said Saroj Kumar Poddar, president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci).

The industry has been demanding that the tax rates should be brought down to Asean levels.

Corporate India agreed with the observation in the Economic Survey that a virtuous cycle of growth in savings and investments would push up the growth rate of the economy.

Industry expressed its happiness on the emphasis of infrastructure creation, which has proved to be one of the main constraints to achieve a faster growth rate.

The infrastructure sector calls for investments of Rs 1.72 lakh crore for highways alone by 2010, Rs 40,000 crore for airports and Rs 50,000 crore for ports by 2012, says Ficci.

Sharing its views, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) observed that despite the economy growing at such a high rate, inflation has been contained at around 5 per cent.

“This has helped avoid a rise in the cost of capital that could have choked off investment growth, which is now underway,” said CII president Y.C. Deveshwar.

The chamber also welcomed the survey’s emphasis on the need for a single energy regulator cutting across ministries to provide comfort to investors.

“This is particularly relevant in view of the declining growth performance of the mining and quarrying sector. Seventy per cent of power is generated from coal and its inadequate availability has been telling on power production,” it said.

CII welcomed the suggestion for increasing FDI in coal mining, allowing captive mining firms to sell coal and allocating coal blocks on the basis of a price-based auction.

“The government should take all possible measures so that fuel price- led inflation is restricted and exports go up,” said Assocham president Anil K. Agarwal.