Pre-Budget: India Inc seeks higher infrastructure, health spend

NEW DELHI: In the first pre-Budget consultation with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday, stakeholder groups from industry, trade and services sectors urged the government to focus on a growth-oriented Budget and loosen her purse strings for high infrastructure and healthcare spending keeping aside fiscal considerations amid the ongoing pandemic.

The finance minister met all the prominent business chambers, including CII, Ficci and Assocham. CII has suggested that the Budget proposals should focus on growth and alongside look at fiscal management from a three-year perspective. “Aggressive disinvestment and monetisation of assets can augment government revenues at a time when tax revenues have fallen sharply,” CII president Uday Kotak said after the meeting. He added the government expenditure should be prioritised in three areas— infrastructure, healthcare and sustainability. 

“The budget proposals should also address two critical areas of boosting private investments and providing support for employment generation,” Kotak pointed out. He asked for raising the cap to Rs 50,000 a month from the current Rs 25,000 a month for becoming eligible for the 30 per cent deduction on salary paid to new employees for three years. The CII president also suggested that the government should bring down its stake in public banks to below 50 per cent through the market route over the next one year except for 3-4 large lenders such as State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and Union Bank.

Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (Ficci) also suggested that the budget must prioritise growth-oriented measures and fiscal considerations should be secondary.  “The need for further fiscal stimulus remains,” it submitted in its recommendation, also seeking  to reduce the GST slabs to three in addition to abolition of anti-profiteering provisions under laws.Other demands include a competitive import tariff over three years with a lowest slab of 0-2.5 per cent on raw materials and standard slab of 5-7.5 per cent on final products.