- Budget reaction from Mr. Kamal Khetan, Chairman and Managing Director, Sunteck Realty Ltd. on Real Estate Sector
“The Union Budget has packed some great ideas and a definite direction for strong economic growth ahead, especially through infrastructure, capital expansion and banking and financial services. For real estate, the move to extend the tax holiday available for the purchase of affordable houses as well as for the affordable rental housing projects is a welcoming move as it would further strengthen the confidence among both developers and homebuyers. The move will certainly prompt more demand, especially among first-time buyers who generally fall in the lower and mid-income segments. Also, the extension of the tax holiday on affordable housing projects for developers by another year will increase the project launches in this segment as they would get additional time and resources. Apart from this, the mega infrastructure development and upgradation to be undertaken across India will add much value to the real estate sector.”
- Budget reaction from Mr. Rajesh Sharma, Managing Director, Capri Global Capital Ltd.
“The Budget has clearly kept the focus on boosting economic growth. Emphasizing to make India self-reliant and strengthen the country’s position in the global economic landscape, the honorable Finance Minister has given systematic importance to the NBFC sector through a slew of measures that will ease the lending business. The reduction in the loan limit from Rs 5 million to Rs 2 million under the SARFAESI act for NBFCs, with a minimum asset size of Rs 100cr and above, would mean that the debt recovery can enforce the security interest for lower ticket size loans. This will help the NBFCs to improve their ability to recover smaller loans and strengthen the overall financial health. Allotment of 20, 000 crores for bank recapitalization and setting up an ARC to take care of NPAs of stressed banks and manage through alternative investment funds would securitize the irrecoverable loans. Extend the eligibility of erstwhile tax sop on a home loan by additional one year up to FY’22 is a welcoming support to de-bottleneck issues surrounding the affordable housing segment.”
- Budget Reaction by Seema Prem, CEO and Co-Founder, FIA Global
The budget this year has given a significant support to startup ecosystem that will help turbocharge their growth. The concept of OPCs with an option to convert into any other type of company at any time, reducing residency limit for an Indian citizen to set up an OPC from 182 days to 120 days, and allow also non-resident Indians to incorporate OPCs in India will certainly boost innovation. Collateral free loans and fund of funds for MSMEs will stimulate growth and provide solace to MSMEs hit by the pandemic.
The portability of One nation, one ration card will be a boon for migrant workers and speedy implementation will ensure that migrants can move across boundaries without worrying about access to ration. The additional allocation to MNREGS will provide substantial relief to workers whose livelihood has been impacted by the pandemic.
- Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) President Mr. Vinkesh Gulati on post budget reaction
Mr. Vinkesh Gulati, President FADA said “FADA is happy to note that the Hon’ble Finance Minister has finally announced the much awaited Scrappage Policy, though voluntary to phase out old vehicles. If we take 1990 as base year, there are approximately 37L CVs and 52L PVs eligible for voluntarily scrappage. As an estimate, 10% of CV and 5% of PV may still be plying on road. We still need to see the fine prints to access the kind of incentives which will be on offer and thus have a +ve effect on retail.
The 6,575 km Highway works proposed in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal and Assam and another 19,500 km work for Bharat Mala project will definitely add fillip to much needed revival of Commercial Vehicles especially M&HCV segment.
Government’s reduction of customs duty on steel products to 7.5% will benefit Auto OEMs. We hence expect the benefit to trickle down to end customers thus helping in boosting of demand.
While we expected disposable income for individuals to increase with enhancement of IT slabs and depreciation benefit on vehicles for individuals, the same has not been taken into consideration.”
- Budget Reaction from Mr. A Ganesan, Group Vice Chairman, Neuberg Diagnostics –
“The honorable finance minister has presented a very progressive budget. With a substantial increase in healthcare outlay, the government has given a much needed shot in the sector’s arm. With a substantial increase in healthcare outlay and key emphasis on public-private partnerships, the entire value-chain in the healthcare sector will gain new momentum and will see major collaborations amongst stakeholders. The announcements of centrally funded – Aatmanirbhar Health Yojana will strengthen our primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare, and setting up of 15 health emergency centers with a focus on curative and preventive health and wellbeing will scale up the delivery of affordable healthcare services”.
- Post-budget reaction from Ms. Preethaa Ganesh, Vice President, Vels Group of Institutions, Chennai –
“We acknowledge the initiative taken by the central government to make India as a preferred destination for higher education. Towards the same, the proposal of Ind-SAT comes in as a boon as this will help in boosting the education scenario in India by bringing in more foreign candidates. Enhancing online education by introducing a full-fledged education programmes will majorly benefit the students of deprived section of the society. Increase in apprenticeship embedded degree/diploma courses by March 2021 will result in providing more internship opportunities to fresh engineers thereby creating a wholesome job environment. In addition to this, we feel that the sum allocated for skill development and training of teachers will give us room to create a better work environment and deliver higher quality of education.”
- Budget reaction from Mr. Randhir Chauhan, Managing Director, Netafim India and Senior Vice President, Netafim Ltd. on Agriculture
“The Union Budget clearly highlights the Government’s continued focus to modernize the Agri sector. We welcome the announcement of additional allocation of Rs. 5,000 cr to the Micro Irrigation Fund (MIF) under NABARD which now totals Rs. 10,000 cr. This is in line with the Government’s vision of ‘per drop more crop’, and will help move closer to the target of micro irrigation coverage across 1 crore ha in five years, across the country. In order to improve the fund utilization, we request policymakers to remove the condition of disbursement (which is only against additional subsidy) and consider to make it available for the mandatory state share as well. The additional fund could keep the momentum up in states like Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka which are already in favour of the scheme, help restart in states like Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and bring newer states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, etc. under its gamut.”
- POST-BUDGET REACTION from Dr. Alok Khullar, CEO, Gleneagles Global Health City, Chennai –
“The budget’s focus to strengthen the Indian healthcare infrastructure is really welcoming as it will help us to be well-prepared to handle disease outbreaks/pandemic. This move will reduce the burden on the healthcare workers and ensure increased accessibility for receiving critical and emergency care. Initiatives to promote fitness and sanitation will help in preventing lifestyle issues and reduce the probability of disease outbreak among the rural areas. The proposed set-up for a viability gap funding window to set up hospitals in PPP mode will help healthcare institutions to expand their network to smaller districts. The PM Jan Arogya Yojana would be a real boost that would help the Indian population to receive advanced technology care in their hometowns and reduce their burden of travelling to metro cities. However, the decision to levy a 5 percent cess on import of medical equipment could have been avoided, as it’s used for advanced life-saving measures and helps India to be abreast with high technologies used around the world for healthcare.”
- Post-budget reaction from Dr. Arun Kalyanasundaram, Director, Pro-med Hospital, Chennai
“The increased allocations for healthcare will boost the country’s healthcare sector and help in generation of more jobs and availability of skilled professionals that would help in meeting the increasing demand for accessible and affordable healthcare. The budget has adequate importance to preventive healthcare which is the need of the hour. After a difficult year for the healthcare sector, we hope that the announced measures would reduce the burden in the sector and we also look forward to working with the Govt to ensure quicker and faster administration of Covid-19 vaccines for all. The set-up of increased number of healthcare facilities will improve the healthcare network and reduce the turnaround of avoidable mortalities.”
- Post-budget reaction from Mr. Saranavakumar Rajan, General Manager – Operations, Rainbow Children’s Hospital, Chennai –
“The holistic approach towards healthcare in this year’s budget is really commendable. Measures to tackle problems of air pollution and sanitation will aid in preventive healthcare and improve one’s well-being. The budget’s focus towards improving the health of the mother and a child with the Poshan Abhiyan scheme to enrich their nutritional intake, will create more awareness on the importance of consuming a well-balanced meal for a healthy living. We look forward to work together with the Govt in its efforts to strengthen the healthcare infrastructure among rural parts of India. This move would help in reducing the maternal and infant mortality rate as their deaths often occur as a result of inaccessibility to hospitals.”
