Industry hails govt's infra push in Budget

Hailing the Union Budget for continued thrust on the infrastructure sector, industry players today said an allocation of about Rs 6 lakh crore for 2018-19 will create employment opportunities and aid growth.
"We welcome the Union Budget 2018-19 which gives special impetus to the infrastructure sector," Mesco Steel (MISL) CMD Rita Singh said in a statement.
Various initiatives to encourage domestic manufacturing, Singh said, will boost overall investment in infrastructure and in turn drive demand for domestic steel.
"We welcome the proposal of increased expenditure on smart cities, rail and road sector, affordable housing and leveraging the India infrastructure finance corporation to fund major projects," Singh added.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today announced an allocation of Rs 5.97 lakh crore for 2018-19 for infra spending, up by over Rs 1 lakh crore from the ongoing fiscal.
"Rs 50 lakh crore for infrastructure is welcome as it reaffirms continued funding of various initiatives in roads, railways and urban infrastructure," Manish Agarwal, Partner and Leader - Infrastructure, PwC India said.

Deloitte India is of the view that the increased allocation for infrastructure projects such as National Highways and Bharat Mala project for seamless connectivity in the Union Budget should give much needed push to the sector especially medium and heavy commercial vehicles.

"As rightly mentioned by the Finance Minister in his budget speech today, infrastructure is the key growth driver of the economy and the government has made its intent clear to develop infrastructure in India by introducing several important measures," TCI Express Managing Director Chander Agarwal said.
JCB India MD and CEO Vipin Sondhi said the Union Budget presented today is a balanced Budget with a continued thrust on infrastructure creation.
Welcoming the announcement for development of National Logistics Portal, Apollo LogiSolutions Ltd Managing Director Raaja Kanwar said that it will improve the transparency and visibility of cargo movement across the country.

"Infrastructure is the growth driver of our economy... With the announcement of 1.48 Lakh crore allocated to railways, we hope that there is a thrust on improving freight logistics apart from better passenger connectivity," Kanwar said.
Indian Stainless Steel Association (ISSDA) said the demands of the stainless steel industry have been neglected in the Union Budget.
Asserting that the the Budget was positive in terms of infrastructure and construction projects, secondary steel sector body All India Induction Furnace Association (AIIFA) said that the expectations of the steel industry was hardly met in the Union Budget.
Cement industry today said the government's push for affordable housing and allocation of Rs 5.97 lakh crore in 2018-19 fiscal for infra spending among other would create demand and promote capacity utilisation.

The industry, which is struggling for demand growth in this fiscal, has welcomed the budget and said the intent to focus on rural infrastructure, especially the focus on 'housing for all' and road network should "rejuvenate" rural economy.
Infra projects such as housing fund, new government medical colleges and hospitals, redevelopment of 600 railways stations and suburban railway infrastructure, renewal of 26,000 km railway line "will hopefully lead to demand generation and capacity utilisation down the road", said Cement Manufacturers Association President Shailendra Chouksey.
Housing sector, presently contributes around 65 per cent to India's cement demand.
"On infra front Finance Minister has shown remarkable restraint... and the budgetary support of Rs 5.97 lakh crore for FY19 will be a big positive for sector and supplementary industries such as cement," said JK Cement CMD Y Singhania.

He further said the focus of the government will "likely remain on effective and timely execution of existing projects" with FM promising construction of 9,000 km highways by the end of FY'19.
"Also, it was encouraging to see the reinforcement of the government's commitment to the Bharatmala Project, which will be a major boost to demand in the next fiscal," Singhania added.
Expressing similarly Dalmia cement (Bharat) CEO and whole time director Mahendra Singhi said increased spendings on rural quarter would also give a boost in rural economy, which would convert in increase in cement demand.
"This would create lots of disposable income and because of this, there would be rise in housing demand," he said.

However, the CMA also said there was no concentrated efforts for the real estate sector and general housing.
"As an important and integral component of the country's infrastructure sector, the Indian cement industry rues the lack of a concentrated focus on revival of Real Estate and general housing other than Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna," it said.
According to CMA, government's efforts in employment generation could have got a boost by providing more focused measures to boost construction as this sector is the second largest employment creator after agriculture.
Rating agency ICRA has estimated a growth of only 2 per cent in the cement industry in FY 2018 led by several factors including weak real-estate activity, sand shortage and issues related to implementation of GST, among others.

In FY 2017, the cement industry had witnessed a de-growth last year after a successive slow down from last 4-5 years. India had nearly 420 million tonnes (MT) of cement production capacity and is the second largest cement producer in the world after China.