Budget 2019-20 (Representative Image)
This year’s budget is a mixed bag of cheers for the respective sectors. For the development of infrastructure over the course of five years, the Government has proposed an investment of Rs. 100 Crores. Public infrastructure and affordable housing are the major key areas taken up in this budget. The Reserve Bank of India’s proposition to be regulatory for the Housing NBFCs is also welcomed by the industry at large as it is expected to improve regulations and remove anomalies.
Mr. Pankaj Bansal, Director, M3M Group said, “The government's support to NBFC by way of one-time guarantee support is a strong step in the right direction to create the much-awaited liquidity in the sector. It will help in boosting credit growth as well as provide support to the housing sector.”
“Further taking HFCs into RBI ambit is welcome steps towards more compliance and regulatory requirements. Government has also taken steps towards marinating liquidity in the banking sector by proposed infusion of 70000 Cr equity in PSUs. Allowing an additional Rs 1.5 lacs per year of interest on affordable housing loan as a deduction will boost the real estate sector and give the benefit of approx Rs 7 lacs to the individual over a period of 15 years,” he added.
This union budget is firm on green measures and the latest technologies to encourage the growth factors of the economy. The twin objective of infrastructural development and a green revolution in the country encouraged introduction of latest technologies, construction methods and the incentives on purchase of E-vehicles in the country.
Sharing a nod on the announcement, Paritosh Dey, Co-Founder & CEO, Benling India Energy and Technology Pvt Ltd. said, “Government's mission of bringing an Electric Vehicle (EV) revolution to India is truly path-breaking and will surely provide the much-needed impetus to the industry. In line with its road map for EVs in the next four years, the budget offers upfront incentives on the purchase of EVs. The move goes hand in hand with other measures to promote the sector, such as proposed reduction in the goods and services tax (GST) rate for EVs to 5 per cent from 12 per cent and batteries from 18 per cent to 12 per cent. We welcome the Government’s vision to protect the environment and lead energy revolution with EVs in the coming years.”
On the similar grounds, technology is playing a pivotal role in the real estate sector as well.
The use of latest construction technologies and green construction methods has enabled the scale of achievement in PMAY; over 13 lakh houses have been constructed under PMAY in just 114 days in 2017-18. The proposition of green measures such as use of eco-friendly methods and latest technologies for construction, stood out for most of the industry experts.
Mr. Li Qiongjia, Director, Risland (North India) said, "We are very pleased that the government is taking notice of the new technologies being used in the realty sector. While we are already using the latest technologies across our projects in India, we also aspire to bring in more innovative and advanced technologies in future that not only help in speedy development of projects but also conserve the environment."
FM Nirmala Sitharaman has also liberalised the investment horizons for global investors in various sectors such as Aviation, Media, and Single Brand Retail. This will prove to be a big push for FDI.
Dr. Omkar Rai, Director General, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) said, “Enormous potential exists in animation, visual effects, gaming and comic sector at domestic level combined with FDI will spur the growth of IT sector, as it will help those companies who are willing to work in India. India already has state-of-the-art infrastructure, technology capability and talent pool to further drive this sector attain newer heights. Of late, Indian film and television industry has made remarkable progress in animation movies with Indian talent. With investment pouring in, this sector will eventually help IT industry in making prominence in the entire world and we will see in future that our animation sector will provide services at par with Hollywood and provide humongous job opportunities to talent pool with specializations in this field.”
The budget had a special announcement in stores for Agriculture sector which got mixed reactions from the industry experts. Apart from the FDI push, the Government aims to replicate the Zero budget farming model to improve the farmers income in the coming time.
“Except for the announcement of setting up 10,000 new-farmer producer organisations, there was no major boost to the agriculture sector in the budget 2019-20. However, I must say that a slew of measures, including MSP hiking of around 17 crops and farmers pension, have already been taken for the development of farmers as well as farm sector days ahead of the budget. In totality, this year’s budget is significant as it has also announced to create 100 Start-up incubators, 80 livelihood and 20 tech incubators, to provide incubation support to 80,000 Start-ups including Agri start-ups for the progress and development of our country" said Dr. M J Khan, Chairman, Indian Council of Food and Agriculture.
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