Emphasis on measures to stimulate growth & investment, boosting domestic consumption with a focus on building R&D-Tech-Innovation led next-generation economy
Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], January 29: Narendra Modi-led NDA government is required to stimulate growth and boost investment with confidence from both public and private sectors in the Union Budget 2022. Special emphasis should be on job creation, lifting consumption & sentiments, and building infrastructure in priority sectors – Education, Health, Rural & MSME. With no social security mechanism for people at the large, inadequate public infrastructure, the middle-class taxpayers were affected the worst. Gujarat-based industrialists and corporates have high hopes from the government and expect the Union budget will be inclusive and growth-oriented.
Mr. Mahendra Patel, Managing Director, Lincoln Pharmaceuticals Ltd, said, “We need to create an effective commercial ecosystem to encourage innovation and research in the country, which is ignored to an extent. Covid taught very important lessons of self-reliance and innovation in the pharma sector, especially in the APIs to reduce dependence on China. The Healthcare sector will look for higher allocation towards production Linked Incentive schemes to encourage capacity expansion of sensitive APIs, complex excipients, drug intermediates, etc. Interest subsidies and restoration of weighted tax deduction u/s 35(2AB) to encourage innovation and R&D are some of the key measures required for the sector.
Funds allocated for healthcare as a percentage of GDP at 1.5% continue to be lower compared to most developing nations. Keeping in mind the current pandemic situation, it is need of the hour for the government to increase the allocation towards health infrastructure across the entire infrastructure chain, specifically in tier 2 and tier 3 cities and immunization. Higher allocation to the sector is also necessary to enable the government to achieve its target to spend 2.5% of GDP on healthcare by 2025.”
“The logistics industry is hoping that Finance Minister Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman’s much-anticipated budget would contain some bold measures to increase logistics competitiveness and overall infrastructure development. On the technological front, the central government should pave the way for investments towards digitization of supply chain management”, said Mr. Ajay Mokariya, Managing Director, Shree Maruti Courier Services Pvt Ltd.
“The budget should focus on technology, R&D, especially in the field of the Location Intelligence Industry. We expect the budget to focus on investing in infrastructure that will help the logistic companies to reduce the total logistics cost as well as time taken for delivery of goods for the end customer. The industry is expecting policy support and tax relaxations to reduce logistics costs to boost export competitiveness. The budget should also propose noteworthy incentives for adopting green logistics to reduce environmental impact. On the policy front, the Narendra Modi-led government should make a strong move on the National Logistics Policy (NLP) in the year 2022 budget. The upcoming budget is expected to contain measures to push reforms and increase supply chain efficiency. It should also announce capital subsidies for building world-class warehouses in tier-2 & 3 towns to support the development of efficient distribution centers. This will help India to turn into a manufacturing hub of the world”, opined Mr. Mokariya.
Mr. Prafulla Gattani, MD & CEO Instatrade Business Venture Group, said, “Government must bring more disposable money into the system to drive consumption. For this, the individual IT exemption limit must be raised to 10 Lakh as this is the bare minimum today, considering the present rate of inflation of the past 5 years. To give a boost to the Digital Economy and Artificial Intelligence, spending on education must be increased, and exemption on educational expenses must be raised to Rs 1 lakh per annum as any good institute is not charging fees less than this for a child. Also, there should be a focus on policy for alternative energy sources, and a long-term policy should be made to promote and reduce dependency on crude.
A large package is required for MSME, and the definition of MSME must be raised to 100 crore investment. Spend on infrastructure must continue for a better and stronger India, and all construction material must be brought into the GST limit of 12% instead of 18%.”