Strong impetus on sustainable development – Industry leaders welcome Budget 2022
Published on : Wednesday 02-02-2022
A growth-oriented budget with a special focus on boosting manufacturing sector to create massive employment opportunities
Leaders across industry segments have welcomed Budget 2022 as growth-oriented, securing India’s long-term economic interest.
Presented here are some of the reactions received from leading corporates.
“The FY23 Union Budget lays strong impetus on sustainable development. Sustainability has steadfastly become an urgent priority and the proposal to issue sovereign green bonds for building green infrastructure will go a long way in creating a low carbon future and reducing carbon intensity of the economy. This is in line with the government’s commitment on climate action at COP 26. The budget also emphasizes energy efficiency and energy transition for reducing emissions. Saving energy is an important aspect of energy management. Hence, energy efficiency and savings measures will be promoted. This will be done in large commercial buildings through the Energy Service Company (ESCO) business model. It will facilitate capacity building and awareness for energy audits, performance contracts, and common measurement & verification protocol. The proposal of thematic funds for mobilising blended finance with government share capped at 20% will also allow fund mobilization for emerging sectors like digital economy and climate action.”
-Anil Chaudhry, MD and CEO, Schneider Electric India Pvt Ltd
"This is a growth-oriented Budget, I am sure that stepping up the capital expenditure sharply by 35.4% will have an incremental effect on the overall growth of the economy. It is good that the policy makers understand that nearly half of our population is likely to be living in urban areas by 2047, when India is at 100. The announcement for urban capacity building like mass transit, planning help, etc., would act as a good principle for development of the country. The budget has demonstrated a good balance between today's needs and the future's demand."
Rajeev Sharma, Chief Strategy Officer, Mitsubishi Electric India Pvt Ltd
“We welcome the growth-oriented budget with a focus on the four pillars – productivity, climate action, financing investments, and the PM Gati Shakti plan. These are concrete steps in the right direction, and over time should positively impact the economy. The increased Capex outlay of Rs 7.50 lakh crore further demonstrates the intent of the government to create the necessary impetus for the economy. Stability in tax policy is also a welcome step.”
-Sunil Mathur, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Siemens Limited
“The Indian government this year has presented a growth-oriented budget with a special focus on boosting the manufacturing sector to create massive employment opportunities and to maintain India’s status as world's fastest-growing economy. The concessional corporate tax for newly incorporated manufacturing companies is a positive move towards promoting the Make in India initiative as this will encourage new manufacturing industries as well as increase private investment in this industry. The PLI (Production Linked Incentive) Scheme in 14 sectors with the aim of creating 6 million jobs can be predicted to improve the performance of the manufacturing industries in the country by 4X in the next four quarters. We congratulate FM, Nirmala Sitharaman for presenting a budget that has laid a roadmap for the economic revival of India – despite the pandemic crisis.
-Rajesh Khosla, President and CEO, AGI glaspac
“We welcome the union budget for the year 2022-23.This is a good budget for the promotion of green mobility. The PM Gati Shakti project is a revolutionary project that will take India’s logistics, infrastructure, sustainability, and green mobility initiatives forward, as this focuses on multi-modal logistic parks and Unified Logistics Interface Platforms, we believe that it will help in reconciling supply chain constraints and make them more robust. Considering the battery swapping policy one of the initiatives in the Budget for the auto industry, we feel the policy as being a sincere advocate of EVs as last mile mobility solutions. Larger battery swapping infrastructure will help enhance EV infrastructure and should propel adoption of EVs. We are glad that the government is encouraging us to create sustainable and innovative business models for battery and energy as a service, improving the efficiency in the EV ecosystem. This will also generate employment opportunities as planned by the government under the Make in India initiative.”
-Diego Graffi, Chairman and MD Piaggio Vehicles Pvt Ltd
“With India remaining the best performing economy among the larger economies as duly highlighted by the budget, the budget has stayed the course in terms of remaining a growth-oriented one. In terms of promotion of cleaner mobility, while the government's intent to encourage battery swapping technology with an eye on galvanizing electric mobility is appreciated, it still remains to be seen what more is there in the fine print for promotion of cleaner alternative fuels. At the same time, the provision for sovereign green bonds with the aim of reducing the carbon intensity of the economy must be appreciated. Also, the encouragement of agroforestry, the extension of PLI schemes to manufacturing of solar PV modules will further help in pursuing a more carbon-free economic pathway for the country. It must also be added that the increase of excise on unblended fuel will also help to some extent in achieving cleaner mobility. However the bigger picture with regard to air quality has been missed. Electric is a while away. What does the country do in the interim? Low hanging fruits like Auto LPG need to be acknowledged, which could bring an immediate relief to the urban air pollution.”
-Suyash Gupta, Director General, Indian Auto LPG Coalition
“We welcome the growth-centric Budget aimed at securing India’s long-term economic interest. The union budget 2022-23 announced by the honourable finance minister has shown a progressive and development-oriented focus for infrastructure and MSME. Extension of Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme by another year to March 2023 and coverage increment of 50,000 crores will give the necessary impetus and act as a key enabler to empower the MSME businesses at the grassroots. The announced measure will have a domino effect on the sector as well as provide a cushion to create an engine of economic growth. The interlinkage of various portals for MSMEs will bring the masses who require the necessary thrust and foster an environment where India becomes integral to global demand. We believe the government will accelerate the task to implement the measures efficiently and rapidly for desired outcomes.
Additionally, the allocation of Rs 48, 000 crores for Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana will fuel the vision of Housing for All and de-bottleneck issues surrounding the affordable housing segment. The announced measure will have a force multiplier for ancillary sectors to generate more opportunities.”
-Rajesh Sharma, Managing Director, Capri Global Capital Ltd