Budget 2024 Expectations Highlights: Experts Call For Tax Reforms, Special Schemes Across Sectors
Budget 2024 Expectations Highlights: Please follow this space for all the latest updates related to the expectations from Union Budget 2024
Avneet Singh Marwah, CEO of Super Plastronics, emphasised the government's role in stimulating the economy and addressing inflation by implementing strategies that promote spending and investment. "Simplifying GST rules, investing in job training, and changing tax brackets for consumers are essential steps. Keeping the 15 per cent corporate tax rate for new manufacturing ventures would attract both local and international businesses to set up shop in India," Marwah said.
"Additionally, expanding the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme in the electronics sector can help Indian manufacturers grow," he noted.
Kartik Narayan, CEO-Staffing at TeamLease Services Limited, looks ahead to the upcoming budget and expects the new government to demonstrate a strong commitment to formalising India's extensive informal workforce. "The forthcoming budget must continue to foster an inclusive, stable economic landscape, and most importantly, it must champion the cause of workforce formalisation, a task that cannot be delayed," opined Narayan.
Ravi Kabra, Co-Founder of Skippi, sees significant potential in the upcoming budget to stimulate growth and innovation in India's FMCG sector. The industry confronts various challenges that necessitate thoughtful policy interventions to resolve them. "The current GST structure imposes significant burdens, particularly on essential FMCG products, particularly through potential reductions in GST rates for essential products currently burdened by high 18 per cent taxes. Infrastructure development, especially for cold chain facilities and warehousing, is crucial to accommodate the growth in beverages and frozen goods," Kabra said.
Harish Fabiani, Group Chairman of IndiaLand Properties, eagerly anticipates positive announcements regarding the status of the real estate industry and the streamlining of current regulatory norms. "I believe that industry status can help more small and medium builders and developers to get recognized as MSMEs and access low-rate credit to support their growth. Such a move could help boost the sector’s growth and increase the inflow of foreign investor participation significantly. We are also hoping for some tax incentives for green building projects and an increase in the existing deduction limit of Rs.2 lakh for the interest component paid on home loans."
Akshat Seth, Managing Director and CEO at HIL Ltd highlighted the Government's recent emphasis on an investment-driven growth strategy, leading to substantial improvements in the country's infrastructure. "We expect the Government to sustain the push towards investments in housing, highways, and rail corridors. This will augment long-term income growth and sustain demand for home and building materials in the country and also promote innovation in the industry," he said
Vineet Narang, Founder & Managing Director of HearClear India, emphasises the necessity for government attention to the elder care segment in India. With the elderly population projected to reach 34.7 crore by 2050, the Indian healthcare ecosystem must prepare to accommodate this significant demographic shift, he said.
"We are fully aligned with the Government Proposal of health benefits to all individuals over 60 years of age, with contributory scheme coverage of Rs 5 Lakh annually. This is a much needed step and should be implemented at the earliest," Narang added.
Subash Vasudevan, Chief Business Officer and Co-founder of iBUS Networks, stressed the importance of implementing measures to strengthen the MSME ecosystem, including expanding credit facilities and increasing overall credit availability in proportion to the company's net worth. "Additionally, targeted incentives for sustainable practices in the power-intensive telecom sector and a more favourable tax regime for ESOPs are essential to foster innovation and attract top talent," he said.
Samit Jain, Managing Director of PLUSS Advanced Technologies, emphasises the need for further simplification of labour laws to reduce compliance costs. He also stresses the importance of streamlining and simplifying pollution control clearances for organisations to adhere to more effectively.
To further R&D, direct funding or grants to industry is necessary, rather than through universities. Industry needs to be able to control and drive new investments in research. Energy circularity needs to be promoted by giving incentives to industry and commercial infrastructure that are able to significantly demonstrate reuse of energy," Jain said.
Mihir V Shah, Executive Director of Vipul Organics Limited, anticipates a renewed emphasis on infrastructure development, manufacturing, and job creation in the budget 2024. "India aspires to be an export hub with the stated target of exports of Goods and Services worth $2 Trillion by 2030. This can be made possible by reducing the tariffs on imports of raw materials and ensuring that the right building blocks are in place, especially for the manufacturing sector," Shah said.
Sarvjeet Singh Virk, Co-founder & MD of Shoonya by Finvasia, expects the upcoming Union Budget to achieve a balance between reform and fiscal prudence. "We foresee a continued focus on advancing India's digital public infrastructure, essential for achieving the $5 trillion economy dream," he said.
Enhanced government initiatives for financial inclusion, smart cities, AI Centres of Excellence, and public-private partnerships in tech adoption are crucial. The fintech industry will continue to innovate with robust government support," Singh added.
Jasvinder Bedi, Managing Partner at Biz Staffing Comrade Pvt Ltd, anticipates enhancements in employee welfare and taxation policies, improvements in the employment process, creation of formal job opportunities, simplification of compliance requirements, adaptation of labour codes to suit modern workplace needs, and initiatives to address the skill-gap challenge in the country in upcoming budget 2024.
"The staffing industry plays a critical role in opening up employment opportunities, helping the organisation to build their business, developing a talent pipeline, and thus fueling economic growth. Hence, this industry deserves to be given an industry status," he added.
Udit Garg, CEO and Director of Kundan Green Energy emphasises the urgent need for a substantial increase in investments in the green energy sector. "I hope the forthcoming Union Budget will facilitate the ecosystem for this. With a robust investment inflow enabled by policy stimulus, the sector can add 50-60 GW annually from the present 10 GWs to 15 GWs," Garg said.
Ratish Pandey, Founder and Business Coach at Ethique Advisory, believes incorporating provisions in the upcoming Union Budget to promote enhanced IT infrastructure for MSMEs would be advantageous. He suggests considering "one-off" expense relief for investments in IT hardware and software, which would empower MSMEs to leverage new technological tools such as CRM, AI, and efficient supply chain systems.
The budget should aim to elevate the healthcare sector’s GDP contribution to around 5 per cent over the next few years, believes Dr Sanjeev Singh, Medical Director, Amrita Hospital, Faridabad. He added, "The budget should allocate funds for research in cutting-edge areas such as genomics, personalized medicine, and artificial intelligence in healthcare. The budget must include provisions for training and development programs for doctors, nurses, technicians, and support staff."
Amit Goyal, Managing Director, India Sotheby's International Realty, expects announcements to promote capital investments and boost foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into India. “One measure that will benefit both the industry and homebuyers is the introduction of a standalone deduction for home loan principal repayment, along with raising the tax breaks on the interest amounts of home loans from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh,” he said.
Background
Budget 2024 Expectations Highlights: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is ready to present the fiscal year 2024-25 budget on July 23 in parliament. This will be the first full Union Budget of the Modi 3.0 government, and the common man, along with India Inc., has great expectations from it. As per the official notification, the Budget Session of Parliament is scheduled to begin on July 22 and conclude on August 12.
In keeping with tradition, the Union Budget will be presented by Sitharaman at 11 am on July 23.
The Union Budget speech will be delivered in the Lok Sabha at 11 am. It will be broadcast live on various government channels, including national broadcaster Doordarshan, Parliament’s channels, and the Government of India's YouTube channels. Sansad TV will also cover the event. To watch the budget speech online and access Budget documents, viewers can visit the official portal www.indiabudget.gov.in, where livestreaming and critical documents will be available.
Several industry leaders have shared their expectations from the upcoming budget. On Wednesday, the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) proposed that the government streamline customs duties across various sectors, such as steel, solar batteries, aluminium, and lithium cells, to bolster domestic manufacturing.
ICC President Ameya Prabhu stressed the importance of implementing protective measures to support the expansion of domestic industries, especially in sectors such as steel, solar batteries, aluminium, and lithium cells. Prabhu suggested, "There is a need for rationalisation of customs duty in these specific sectors in a holistic manner. Huge potential is there to boost domestic manufacturing and make India a global hub for manufacturing."
Furthermore, he advocated for correcting the inverted duty structure by lowering the duty on mixed petroleum gas from 5 per cent to 2.5 per cent. "To boost domestic manufacturing, there is a need to increase duty on polymers - polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene terephthalate, polypropylene and polyesters to 10 per cent. This will help in reducing import dependency and will drive India towards self-sufficiency in the petrochemical manufacturing segment," he added.
- - - - - - - - - Advertisement - - - - - - - - -