Industry reactions to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Union Budget 2022 presented in the Lok Sabha on February 1
By Staff Reporter
FEBRUARY 01, 2022
India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's second pandemic Budget is growth-oriented and exudes a fine balancing act with an increase in capital expenditure while maintaining fiscal discipline, India Inc. said on Tuesday.
Corporate leaders and industry bodies described the Budget as business-like and devoid of any populism, with an emphasis on improving the ease of doing business and reviving economic growth by catalysing demand and investments.
"I congratulate FM @nsitharaman Ji for a growth-oriented and forward-looking #Budget for the masses. It sets the stage for rapid progress post-pandemic," Vedanta Resources Executive Chairman Anil Agarwal tweeted. — PTI
Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra tweeted: "Brevity has always been a virtue. @nsitharaman's shortest budget address may prove to be the most impactful." Biocon Executive Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw tweeted: "Fiscal prudence and business ease have been the theme. 35% increase in capital expenditure will drive infra and jobs - positive rhetoric with no negative surprises= balanced budget." RPG Enterprises Chairman Harsh Goenka tweeted: "With today's budget focussed on capex, digital and welfare - I can clearly imagine the future. Today's wordle Budget edition".
Hinduja Group Co-Chairman Gopichand Hinduja termed the Budget as a great attempt by the finance minister to lay the economic blueprint for India's growth in the next 25 years.
CII Director-General Chandrajit Banerjee said, "Indian industry welcomes the government's unwavering commitment towards boosting investments, creating jobs, improving ease of doing business, maintaining tax stability and certainty in policy regime through well-designed and prudent measures delineated in the budget." Along with several positive and innovative measures, the most defining feature of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget for 2022-23 is a phenomenal increase in the government's capital expenditure that would effectively go up to ₹10.68 lakh crore for the financial year beginning April 1, Assocham said.
Essar Ports Managing Director Rajiv Agarwal said the Budget, guided by the PM's Gati Shakti National Master Plan, will facilitate economic recovery, especially amid the persistent pandemic.
"It is highly encouraging that the Union Budget seeks to lay the foundation and give a blueprint of the economy over 'Amrit Kal' of next 25 years — from India at 75 to India at 100," Pradeep Multani, president of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said.
AUTO INDUSTRY
'Proposed policy for battery-swapping to promote electric mobility'
The proposed policy for battery-swapping to promote electric mobility and other initiatives like the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan for multimodal transport will help in the growth of the overall automobile sector, industry players said on Tuesday.
Hyundai Motors India Managing Director Unsoo Kim said the Government's strong approach towards accelerating infrastructure development, sustainability along with digitalisation in every sphere of business will give a strong impetus to the overall economy while empowering consumerism in India. "The vision for clean mobility creating electric vehicle ecosystem is a positive indicator for the auto industry and for its large supply chain," he added.
Tata Motors Group Chief Financial Officer P.B. Balaji noted that Budget 2022 is an articulation of purposeful intent enabled by a clear action plan. "For the Indian automobile sector, which is a significant contributor to the nation's GDP, the Budget offers continuity and also additional opportunities to drive multi-year growth," he noted. Specifically, the robust increase in capex (capital expenditure) by 35.4 per cent to Rs 7.5 lakh crore and a comprehensive investment plan for infrastructure are significant growth boosters, Balaji stated. "Additionally, the launch of the well-conceived PM Gati Shakti programme for multimodal transport, including 100 cargo terminals and investments in 25,000 km of highways apart from investments in ports and metros, is an excellent development that will help create a world-class transport infrastructure in the country," he said.
Mahindra and Mahindra Executive Director (Auto and Farm) Rajesh Jejurikar said the road map laid out to usher in sustainable mobility by the finance minister in the Union Budget 2022-23 will bolster the electric mobility adoption in India. "Battery-swapping can offer a practical alternative to increase the adoption of electric vehicles. As part of our last-mile mobility, we look forward to working with the government, policymakers and our partners to formulate and implement the battery swapping policy," he added.
TVS Motor Company Chairman Venu Srinivasan said the big boost to capital expenditure is welcome and it will give a fillip to the Indian economy. "For the automobile sector, we welcome the 'PM Gati Shakti Master Plan' focusing on building world-class infrastructure and improved connectivity for commuters. "In the electric mobility space, we strongly support the measures undertaken by the government to promote clean and green mobility, mainly introducing the battery-swapping policy that will be instrumental in supporting an efficient EV ecosystem," he noted.— PTI
REALTY SECTOR
Realtors hail ₹48k outlay for PMAY; unhappy over no tax sops for home buyers, industry
Real estate developers on Tuesday hailed the government's decision to allocate ₹48,000 crore in Budget under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) and faster approvals for affordable housing in urban areas but rued that no additional tax deduction was allowed on interest paid on home loans. "Allocation of ₹48,000 crores towards completion of 80 lakhs home under PMAY is a welcome step. FM also announced that approvals related to land and construction particularly for Affordable Housing in the urban areas will be given priority,"
CREDAI President Harshvardhan Patodia said. He also welcomed the government's focus on urban planning, especially in tier II and III cities, in the Budget.
Boman Irani – President, CREDAI-MCHI, said there has been an introduction of a revolutionary reform - one land and one registration system -- which is beneficial for the real estate ecosystem. "Though the real estate industry analysts and developers community were hoping for some more rebates given its performance and contribution to the overall economy in the past few months. A simple point that could have added cheer to home buyers would be an increase in tax deduction for home loan interest," he added.
Naredco President Rajan Bandelkar said there are several provisions in the Union Budget will positively impact the real estate sector and cited example of focus on the development of logistics parks. "Easing land and construction-related approvals will help the development firms in meeting the delivery timelines," he added. However, Mr. Bandelkar said the sector was expecting more in terms of incentives to boost sales and to fulfil the dream of Housing for All by 2022.
Naredco Vice President Niranjan Hiranandani welcomed the focus to resolve long standing issues of reduction in approval timelines for land and construction. "With rise in population & career mobility, focus on nurturing new smart tier 2-3 cities will result in a big boost for Real Estate infrastructure with cascading impact on additional job creation," he said. Granting of infrastructure status to data centres in lieu of impetus to data localization and protect data sovereignty is shot in the arm, he said, adding that this would enable the data centres industry to avail long & cheap credit financing.
Puravankara Ltd. MD Ashish R. Puravankara said "with regards to the housing sector, we are pleased that the Government has revoked custom duties levied on stainless steel and High Steel Bars. We are hopeful that these savings are passed down to the developers so that the end-users can benefit; this is yet to be determined." Nitesh Kumar MD & CEO Emami Realty Ltd., said the government's focus on infrastructure and sustainability will drive real estate growth.
Gaurs group CMD Manoj Gaur lauded the focus on affordable housing and urban planning in the Budget. "Our long standing demand of industry status for the real estate sector remains unaddressed this year and we hope authorities look into it in the coming years," he said.
Signature Global Chairman Pradeep Aggarwal said the government has focused on affordable housing this Budget.
Nayan Raheja of Raheja Developers said the real estate sector's long-standing demand has not been addressed in the Budget. "We've been requesting industry status for the entire sector as well as single-window clearance to ensure smooth operations, but the government has yet to respond." Supertech Chairman R.K. Arora said, "PMAY has been given due importance, however largely through government's flagship programmes rather than the incentives real estate development companies were hoping for." Chintels MD Prashant Solomon said the government's focus on increased urbanisation, planning and governance along with comprehensive sector development is a step in the right direction. "With enhanced focus on modernizing and upgrading of infrastructure, urban capacity building, in addition to making Data Centre - part of infrastructure and strengthening of public transport systems, will lead to job creation that will fuel fresh demand in the real estate sector," Wave Chairman Manpreet Singh Chaddha said.
Hawelia group Chairman Rattan Hawelia said the budget is disappointing for the real estate sector. "Substantial announcements, such as, provision of input-tax credit in GST, policy reforms for completion of halted projects, tax rebate benefits for home loan interest, etc, are by and large remained unaddressed." Suren Goyal, Partner, RPS Group, said the revamping of SEZ Act will also assist in the growth of the economy. — PTI
TELECOM INDUSTRY
Telecom industry body COAI on Tuesday lauded the Budget's focus on digital connectivity and announcement related to spectrum auction for 5G rollout but expressed disappointment that its long-standing demands remained unaddressed.
Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) said it looks forward to continued and constructive engagement with the government for lowering of levies on the telecom sector. "We are glad to see the focus on the enhancement of digital connectivity and the announcement for the required spectrum auction in 2022 for the rollout of 5G mobile services," S.P. Kochhar, director general of COAI said in a statement. "We look forward to continued and constructive engagement with the government for reduction of levies on the telecom sector," Mr. Kochhar added. He termed the Budget 'pro-growth' with emphasis on providing further impetus to Digital India initiative. Mr. Kochhar noted that the proposals for encouraging affordable broadband and mobile services through PLI scheme for 5G equipment, laying optical fiber cables through PPP (public-private partnerships) model under BharatNet project are all "welcome steps".
JEWELLERY INDUSTRY
The gems and jewellery industry on Tuesday welcomed the Union Budget 2022-23, saying it included some much-needed reforms that would springboard the sector to multi-fold growth in the coming year.
The Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council noted that the sector is one of the leading contributors to the national economy and the country is the undisputed leader in diamond processing. "Reduction in import duty on cut and polished diamonds to 5% from the current 7.5% will further help in strengthening the sector and retain its leadership position," the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) chairman Colin Shah said.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday announced cutting import duty on cut and polished diamonds and gemstones while presenting the Union Budget 2022-23, to 5% while on sawn diamond to nil in order to boost the sector.
Mr. Shah said, since more than 90% of the gem and jewellery sector consists of MSMEs, the extension of the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) for MSMEs up to March 2023 will be a great relief to the sector, and we are happy that its outlay has been increased by ₹50,000 crore to a total cover of ₹5 lakh crore. “Acceptance of personal surety bonds in place of bank guarantee for import of gold will meet our longstanding demand of simplifying duty free gold availability, especially to the SME exporters of gold jewellery and revive the exports of plain gold jewellery. Surety Bonds in place of Bank Guarantee will be made acceptable to reduce indirect costs for suppliers. This will help gold jewellery exports,” he added. — PTI
PNG Jewellers Chairman and Managing Director Saurabh Gadgil opined that the budget has put a lot of emphasis on increasing exports across sectors and the same goes for gems and jewellery. "Simplified regulation for ecommerce exports in the gems and jewellery sector is a welcome move. Duty reduction to 5% in cut and polished diamonds and gemstones is a good move too. Increase in capital expenditure by 4.1% is a boost to the economy," he added.
WHP Jewellers director Aditya Pethe stated that the budget is positive and growth-oriented.
Anmol Jewellers Founder Ishu Datwani said that one good aspect of this budget is the reduction of import duty on cut and polished diamonds and gemstones to 5%. "Other demands of the jewellery sector have not been met. The budget seems growth-oriented and may give an impetus to the economy helping growth in GDP," he noted.
Aisshpra Gems and Jewels Director Vaibhav Saraf said this budget is focussed on infrastructure development and increased capital expenditure and help to states for development will lead to higher fund infusion in the economy giving spurt to retail spending.
All India Gem and Jewellery Domestic Council Chairman Ashish Pethe said even as the Union Budget 2022-23, overall is very positive it does not do anything specific for the industry except the cut in Customs duty on Cut and Polished Diamonds and sawn diamond, which is positive for the industry. However, the extension of ECLGS will help boost the rural economy and will indirectly help the gem and jewellery industry, he added.