Industry representatives laud 2023 Union Budget

Hyderabad: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her fifth consecutive Union Budget on February 1, 2023. PM Narendra Modi had stated ahead of the budget session in Parliament that the Union Budget will address the needs of the common man. Financial Minister Nirmala Sitharaman expressed that she empathized with the people as she belonged to the middle class.

Along these lines, here is what people from divergent fields had to say about the new budget:

Mr Sandeep Chachra, Executive Director of Action Aid Association, shared his expert opinion on the budget's impact. "The World Bank report suggests that by 2030, India may account for 34 million of the projected 80 million global job losses from heat stress." "In such a situation, budgetary allocation for a national loss and damage financing facility would have been a game changer. The initiative of green growth and transition to net-zero carbon and several focused proposals are welcome steps," Mr Sandeep continued.

"While the budget has significantly relieved the middle class, India's working class requires more attention. We may have come out of COVID, but the precarity of employment continues. MGNREGA allocation has even been reduced to 60,00 crores, reducing available employment days. India must close the global gap in terms of its social protection expenditure as a percentage of its GDP," he added.

Krishna Prasad Vunnam, Founder and MD of Ankura Hospital for Women and Children, said, "The government's plan to set up centres of excellence to promote research and development in pharma is an excellent move. "New nursing colleges, a sickle cell anaemia reduction programme, pharmaceutical research, and PPP for medical research are much needed. In addition, making facilities in select ICMR labs available for research is a good move."

FTCCI President Anil Agarwal said it is a futuristic budget with a year full of promises. "The seven priorities—inclusive growth, reaching the last mile, infrastructure development and investment, unleashing the potential, youth power in the financial sector, and green growth—ensure the development of all sectors." "Tribal development, their housing, Ekalavaya Model schools, a fillip to infrastructure development, the revival of 50 airports, helipads, the emphasis on rural development, a focus on tourism, and the raising of the income tax limit to Rs 7 lakhs are all good," he added.

Srinivas Garimella, Chair of the Industrial Development Committee of FTCCI, commended the budget. He gave a big thumbs up to the Union Minister for her well-balanced budget, which allocated enough funds for every sector. He praised the large allocation for infrastructure development and the increase in spending on this sector. Capex expenditure was increased by 33% to Rs 10 lakh crore for 2024. He also thanked the Fed for injecting Rs 9000 crore into the corpus, reducing the cost of credit, and returning 95% of the forfeited amount.

Sudhir VS, Chairman of the GST and Customs Committee of the FTCCI, said, "The budget has come to the rescue of middle-class people. The focus on green energy is welcome. It will pave the way for developing alternative and environmentally friendly fuels. Moreover, it reduces the import budget and saves the nation much-needed foreign exchange. Setting up centres of excellence for artificial intelligence is the right step in a positive direction."

Prem Chand Kankaria, Chairman of the Banking, Finance, & Insurance Committee of FTCCI, said, "For growth, two things are essential. First, CAPEX and disposable income in the hands of people to spend more will trigger well and have a ripple effect on the economy. The benefits offered to senior citizens, making PAN the single source of identification, reducing compliance burden, and Vivad se Vishwas initiatives go a long way in making this budget a people-friendly budget."

Hari Govind Prasad, Chairman of the Direct Taxes Committee, FTCCI, said, "Overall, the budget is excellent." Leave encashment, KYC process simplification, raising the TDS limit, and raising the personal income tax exemption to Rs 7 lakhs are positive budget issues. In addition, changes made in tax provisions allowing the public to have surplus funds will ensure positive economic growth", he observed.

Chairman of the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), Vipul Shah, thanked the government for accepting its recommendation to promote indigenous manufacturing in the emerging lab-grown diamond (LGD) sector by providing research grants to IIT for five years. In addition, GJEPC welcomes the reduction of Customs Duty on LGD seeds to zero from 5%. It will ensure India's end-to-end world leadership in rough-to-finished manufacturing of lab-made diamonds and jewellery.

"In addition, the government has also accepted clear segregation Customs (IT HS) codes for silver and platinum-studded lab-grown jewellery for better differentiation and identification at the consumer level. Another good thing that will help growth is that there will be no capital gains tax on turning real gold into digital gold. "The increase in the allocation for the Interest Equalisation Scheme from Rs. 2,376 crores in 2022–23 to Rs. 2,932 crores in 2023–24, up by 23%, will help in supporting exports, particularly those of MSMEs, and may result in increasing the subvention support as demanded by the exporters given rising interest rates," he added. "The industry had recommended a reduction in import duty on gold, silver, and platinum, which has not been considered in the budget. The council will continue to pursue the same with the government for the industry's overall welfare, " he concluded.

VS Raju, Past President of the FTCCI, said, "India's growth of 7 per cent in the current fiscal year is the highest among major economies. Moreover, the 50-year interest-free loan to states for CAPEX has now been increased to Rs 1.3 lakh crore, 30% more than what was allocated for the previous year. Though there is a scope for improvement, this budget is perfect," he concluded.