Views of Dalmia Bharat Group on Union Budget 2020-2021

Mr. Puneet Dalmia, Managing Director, Dalmia Bharat Group: "The FY22 Budget is big on vision and has taken a series of measures to bring back sustained and high growth for the Indian economy. It is evident that the budget plans to give a big boost to both manufacturing and infrastructure with some path breaking steps like creation of Development Financial institution to fund the ambitious National Infrastructure Pipeline, setting up of National Asset Monetisation Pipeline that will free up idle resources including surplus land with PSUs, and monetisation of various assets of railways like dedicated freight corridors, power transmission lines, roads, and oil and gas pipelines for fund mobilisation. The decision to set up three more dedicated freight corridors will ensure faster and smoother delivery of raw materials as well as industrial and farm products, which will help save costs and allow companies to target new markets."

"Additionally, the budget has emphasized on creating infrastructure for R&D and Skill enhancement in Artificial intelligence, which will play a pivotal role in preparing the workforce for the future. If rolled out well, all these initiatives will act as a game-changer for the Indian economy and allow India to emerge as global hub for both manufacturing and trained workforce in this decade."

Mr. Mahendra Singhi, MD & CEO, Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd : "The FY22 Union Budget is bold and visionary as it focuses on boosting domestic manufacturing and strengthening infrastructure across the country to achieve the target of $5 trillion economy, raise GDP growth to 8% plus on a sustained basis and fulfil the vision of an AtmaNirbhar Bharat. The budget has backed up the targeted infrastructure led recovery with hefty increase in allocation to boost formation of assets across the country. Thus, the budget has proposed to raise capital expenditure by 35% on year to Rs 5.54 lakh crore for FY22. The launch of Asset Monetization Pipeline for brownfield infrastructure assets including railways will give necessary fillip to the sector and create a virtuous cycle for mobilising finances with launch of sector specific InvITs. The decision to launch three more dedicated freight corridors will ensure seamless movement of goods including raw materials and further bring down logistics costs for manufacturing sector. Furthermore, increasing the target of National Infrastructure Pipeline projects to 7,400 projects will be instrumental in creating job opportunities across the country apart from providing strong business opportunities for ancillary industries like steel and cement. The budget has also laid emphasis on boosting the start-up ecosystem by incentivising one person companies and allocating Rs 50,000 crore for research. It is also heartening to see that budget has focussed on tackling the critical challenge of air pollution by allocating Rs 2,217 crores for 42 urban centres with a million-plus population."