Industry reactions to Union Budget 2022-23 (Part-7)

G. Srinivasan, CEO, Athulya, Chennai
“The Union Budget 2022 is forward looking with emphasis on mental healthcare. They have taken into consideration the increasing cases of mental health problems and have made provisions to offer quality counselling and care for people across all age groups. It will be beneficial to most of our elderly population post the pandemic. Another progressive move by the government is the launch of DESH-Stack eportal for skilling and reskilling citizens. This will address the current need to enhance the skills of existing healthcare workers. The continuous development programs will be a game changer across all sectors, facilitating knowledge creation for people by grooming them to fit the industry requirements, eventually opening-up greater employment opportunities.”
 
Nikhil Mathur, Managing Director India & Head Data Partnership & Innovation-APAC, GfK 
Sharing views on Union Budget 2022- 2023, Nikhil Mathur, Managing Director – India, GfK said, “Government’s growth-oriented goals led by the digital economy and tech-enabled developments will boost the consumer and electronics industry penetration across India. GfK insights indicate similar positive trends as the consumer landscape is evolving in lower-tier towns. The inclusion of 5G in the PLI scheme will boost the ‘Make in India’ vision and smartphone penetration in rural. We can expect a substantial surge in the contribution of 5G devices in 2022 which is currently 27% in terms of value & 12% in terms of volume as per GfK Market Intelligence 2021. This will also aid the growing demand for premium & smart appliances. The calibration in custom duties for "wearable and hearable" devices will provide an impetus for higher growth in 2022. 
The underlying theme of ‘Atmanirbhar’ & ‘Make in India’ will undoubtedly create job opportunities, bringing a positive outlook towards domestic demand of consumer tech products in India. The industry was expecting rationalization of GST for appliances & electronics which would have enhanced the consumption. However, it is still a progressive budget paving a superhighway for sustained, structured, and long-term growth for the Technical Consumer Goods industry.”

Kamal Khetan, Chairman and MD, Sunteck Realty Ltd
“The budget is a capex-oriented budget, covering all major macro-economic growth engines, that includes infrastructure, housing and MSME sectors. The government’s focus on the creation of 80 lakh affordable housing units by 2023 and allocation of Rs. 48000 crores towards the PM Awas Yojana, will go long way to support housing and allied sectors. The Real estate sector is bouncing back from post pandemic, and the proposal of expanding highways in the country by 25,000 kilometres and focus on urban infrastructure will give it support it requires. To bring trust and transparency to the whole sector, the government’s ‘One Nation, One Registration Software’ will prove to be a pivotal step. The process promises to bring uniformity to ‘anywhere registration’ of deeds and documents and ease the systemic lock jam.”

Prof. Hema Swamy, Assistant Professor, Finance at Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai
“While energy efficient trains like Vande Bharat or ‘eco friendly’ housing schemes are welcome, it is important to educate, support and improve sustainable lifestyles in as many spheres as possible. This could be through eco friendly educational initiatives through television like growing your own food or water conservation measures aimed at school children, allocation for urban kitchen gardens in PM housing schemes and government hospitals and other such micro level interventions can facilitate the conscious adoption of a sustainable lifestyle.”

Amit Saraogi, Managing Director, Anmol Feeds, Chairman for Livestock Taskforce, CII for Eastern Regional Council, Director Member of MCC Chambers of Commerce & Industry and Chairman of  Council on Animal Husbandry, Fisheries & Rural the year 2021-2022
“The livestock and animal husbandry sector contributes 4.11% to GDP and 25.6% to total agriculture GDP, yet there was inadequate attention presented to the sector in the Union Budget of 2022. Duty reduction on certain inputs required for shrimp aquaculture to promote its exports is a welcome move as it will further boost entrepreneurial mindset and help in job creation. Lowering production cost of shrimp hatchery and feed will promote growth in the sector. The fisheries and aquaculture sector has tremendous potential to generate livelihood and income. However, marine and dairy products were left untouched by the budget. Like announcements made for wheat and paddy farmers, MSP was needed to be fixed for the poultry sector as well. This would have benefited the poultry farmers to a large extent. The industry also expected a viable solution towards controlling the ever spiraling of the raw material prices as it has been plaguing the already overburdened industry. The budget for Blue Revolution has not been outlaid.  The blended capital fund to startups for agriculture & rural enterprise will be valuable for the sector. Making optimum utilization of technology and IT in the farming sector is required for modernization of the industry and keeping up with the post digital world. While development of infrastructure, roads and railways will also benefit the agriculture sector in terms of efficient logistical and supply chain management, the industry expected a lot more from the Budget to support farmers who are the backbone of our country.”
 
Dr. GSK Velu, Chairman & Managing Director, Trivitron Healthcare and Neuberg Diagnostics
“As expected, Budget 22-23 was a balanced effort to improve overall economic growth. Today, the healthcare sector in India is at a much stronger position than ever before. Measures introduced in Budget 2022-23 will further strengthen the healthcare sector while focusing on prevailing challenges.
The rollout of a National Digital Health Ecosystem will ensure that all segments of the society are able to access affordable and adequate healthcare in a seamless and efficient manner. Such an ecosystem can potentially make universal healthcare a reality for India.
Further, the fact that mental health counselling and care services found a place in the budget is a testament to how far we have come as a country. Inarguably, the Covid pandemic has adversely affected the mental health of the population at large. Thus, the launch of a National Tele Mental Health program can play a catalytic role in both normalising conversations around mental health as well as ensuring that people are able to seek support for mental health related challenges.
Though there was not much for the medical devices industry directly in the Budget, the industry will benefit from the Government's increased focus on healthcare. The National healthcare mission outlay has been kept at ~37,000 crores like previous year and this is a bit disappointing, considering the fact our healthcare infrastructure needs big boost in the coming years. The demand from all healthcare experts was to increase healthcare outlay in the current budget.”

A Ganesan, Group Vice Chairman, Neuberg Diagnostics –
“Reduction of sur-charge  to 12% on Long Term capital Gains is welcome step.
Unintentional errors in Income Tax can be corrected by filing updated return within 2 years from the end of Assessment year – This is a positive change.
Department to wait before filing an appeal in higher court in respect of disputes of similar nature with regard to interpretation of law , in case cases of similar nature are pending in Supreme court / other courts – This is also a very good step .
Significant increase in Capital expenditure allocation by almost 35% will probably spur economic growth and create jobs.
Extension of emergency credit guarantee scheme till 31/03/2023 is a step in the right direction.
National Digital Health Ecosystem , National Tele Mental Health Programme – Very god initiatives if implemented well.”
 
Gautam Malhotra, Managing Director, FuelBuddy
“The Union budget 2022 is a bold and growth-oriented budget with a huge capex of Rs 7.50 lakh crore provided for infrastructure. This marks a jump of 35.4 per cent in capex to fund various infrastructure projects in FY 2022-23. This is a positive move for door-to-door fuel-delivery company like FuelBuddy which will witness higher overall demand for fuel especially diesel, as the big infrastructure push will accelerate sales of heavy earth moving equipment, commercial vehicles and fleets. We stay committed to create a robust supply chain delivery mechanism for our customers.”