Budget 2024: Industry leaders 'happy' with Modi govt's 'prudent' budget

Budget 2024 Updates: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her sixth budget, an interim one on February 1, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections scheduled for this year

Budget 2024: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's interim budget presentation on Thursday has swayed the sentiments of industry leaders, who said they are happy with the government's position on the financial roadmap of India ahead.

Reacting to the pre-election Budget, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Director General Chandrajit Banerjee called it a "very prudent budget," which lays the path for the country's strong foundation. Follow the full coverage of Budget 2024 here.

Sanjiv Puri, the Managing Director of ITC, also hailed Sitharaman's short speech as a "great budget."

Meanwhile, CII president R Dinesh called the government's fiscal deficit target of 5.1 per cent a "significant step." "Our recommendation initially was 5.4 per cent but, 5.1 per cent is obviously a very significant step forward," he said.

Meanwhile, Sanjay Kumar, partner at Deloitte Consulting, noted that future budgets should have more emphasis on subjects like technology adoption and digital agriculture. "We should see more emphasis on technology adoption, MSMEs, women and youth participation, and digital agriculture. All these things will make us 'Viksit Bharat'," he noted.

READ: FM Sitharaman's interim Budget extends tax benefits in IFSC till March 2025

Rajesh Kumar Mediratta, MD & CEO, Indian Gas Exchange, said, "The budget has laid a roadmap for ensuring a green gas-based economy in India. The policy mandating phased blending of CBG for CNG and PNG will help in greening the gas supply chain and balancing the demand-supply for clean fuels. Financial assistance for procuring biogas aggregation machinery would tremendously help in energizing the biofuel segment..."

Mr. Sundararaman Ramamurthy, MD & CEO BSE, said, "...Finance Minister has once again delivered a responsible, innovative and inclusive budget. This budget lays emphasis on Fiscal products and gives room for private capital investment...the FM once again lays on the foundation for a very strong path for India with due focus on areas of national importance."

Sitharaman presents Modi govt's report card

Sitharaman began her address by presenting an extensive report card of the Narendra Modi government. She credited structural reforms and pro-people initiatives for the accelerated economic growth of the country despite the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic.
 

Among key announcements, she proposed tax benefits to startups and pension funds, 50-year interest-free loans of Rs 75,000 cr to be extended for states, tourism development measures, the launch of Blue Economy 2.0, further support for the Electric Vehicle ecosystem and green energy, and railway corridors, among other measures. She also proposed to raise the capex target by 11.1 per cent to Rs 11.11 trillion.

What industry leaders had expressed in wishlist

Earlier in the day, various industry leaders across the sectors had expressed their wish list for the finance ministry, hoping for favourable policy considerations and schemes to boost the economy further.

The leaders stressed assuming an approach of fiscal prudence while largely agreeing on a spending boost on infrastructure to propel economic growth.

There should be further push in defence, space and infrastructure sectors: IMC Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Infrastructure key focus

Ahead of the presentation of the interim Budget, Ajit Mangrulkar, the director general of IMC Chamber Of Commerce And Industry said, "...infrastructure has to be the key focus…it creates investment, employment… that's an area we are going for an all-round growth..."

READ: Interim Budget: Railways get 3 new corridors; 40,000 bogies to be upgraded

Boost to domestic manufacturing of weapons

Meanwhile, defence sector experts said they expected an allocation for domestic weapon manufacturing.

KV Subramanian, the executive director of the IMF and former Chief Economic Advisor to the government, said, "..India is in a good position (economically)...but we have to further strengthen the reforms that have been done in manufacturing...the voters need to be wary of the 'freebies culture'..."

Demand for 20 per cent increase in capex

A similar position was echoed by Ramachandran Dinesh of theTVS Supply Chain Solutions, who said, "...we are recommending a 20 per cent increase in capital expenditure spending, Rs 12 trillion to be spent on infrastructure..."

READ: Govt targeting to help 30 mn women become 'Lakhpati Didis': FM Sitharaman

Rahul Garg , the chairman of National Council on Direct Taxes, ASSOCHAM & Partner, Price Waterhouse said, "...everybody is eyeing whether we would be able to contain our fiscal deficit…we have had a reasonably good collection of taxes…the whole world's expectation of prudence in India's financial management…"

Road to $5 trillion economy

Brahmananda Mishra, the chief of the Utkal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said, "...This budget will give India a direction to become a $5 trillion economy by 2027, $7 trillion by 2030, and $10 trillion by 2035…Due to this year being an election year, public will expect relief from the government…They need to lay emphasis on youth and work for the growth of MSME sector and invest in infrastructure further…"