Your front-page lead report, "Enhanced capital spending likely" (January 26), on Republic Day must have come as music to Indian industry. Despite the efforts of the Narendra Modi government on several fronts, industry leaders have been complaining about the government's inadequate capital expenditure (capex) in infrastructure, which is perceived as necessary for catalysing growth. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley seems to have heard their lamentations.
The announcement that capex for the next year is expected to be up 25 per cent to Rs 3 lakh crore, coupled with falling input costs for almost all sectors and the proposed simpler tax regime likely in the Budget, should provide industry with the required impetus.
Even though the prime minister has helped open doors in almost all developed countries; there is marked improvement in India's fiscal position; gross domestic product growth rate has looked up considerably; coal availability to power plants has eased; there is perceptible improvement in governance and rapidly sliding oil prices have come as a boon, industry kept cribbing. Hopefully, the government's announcement will correct the situation.
Krishan Kalra Gurgaon
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