As India gears up for the Union Budget 2024, the leaders from the infrastructure industry have high expectations for transformative announcements that could propel the nation towards its goal of becoming a developed country by 2047.
Read the expectations from the Infrastructure sector in detail:
Pradeep Misra, CMD, Rudrabhishek Enterprises Limited (REPL)
As India is striving to achieve the status of a Developed country by 2047, the focus of the infrastructure sector will continue in the upcoming Union Budget. We have already seen its indication in the interim budget and successive announcements earlier this year.
In line with the Center’s increasing emphasis on self-reliance, the development of ‘Defense Industry Corridors’ could be one of the primary focuses in the union budget. This ambitious project is likely to have a direct impact on job creation, promoting regional-level industries, saving foreign currency reserves, and enhancing our domestic technical capabilities. Similar to the UP Defense Industrial Corridor (UPDIC) we can see the identification of several other regional hubs and the development of different corridors, as per the local advantages and national requirements.
In this budget, we are expecting that the Smart City 2.0 will be rolled out in full steam, covering an even wider spectrum of the urban landscape. There have been success stories as well as critical learnings from the first phase of the Smart City mission. The projects under the first phase are mostly completed or they are near completion. The implementation of Integrated Command & Control Centers (ICCC) was a major achievement, which can now be leveraged for data integration at the city level and its applications in sustainable urban development. We expect that Smart City 2.0 will focus on the self-sustainability of these projects and institutions, while the follow-up scheme will extend to new cities and smaller towns.
PMAY has been among the most successful flagship programs of GOI in the previous tenure. Its spread was wide and impact highly visible in the standard of living, social security, and livelihood support. It is expected that PMAY 2.0 will extend to more urban families by expanding the coverage criteria and, the nature of financial and technical support from the government. The formats and operation mechanisms are already in place both for Smart City and PMAY which will enable its faster rollout.
The budget is also expected to bring special incentive provisions for the promotion of SM-REITs which is likely to have a significant impact in the coming five years within the real estate sector. This new provision has opened a new market segment of retail participation and Mutual Fund investments in real estate projects, which will require tax incentives to scale up at a higher pace. As the SM-REITs are still in a nascent stage, they will require massive support from the central government in terms of favorable policies and budgetary allocations. This new segment will help real estate industries with greater liquidity and enable the delivery of world-class building infrastructure.
MSMEs play a very critical role in the overall Indian economy and GDP growth. It is important that the Budget brings special provisions to ensure the timely payment to MSMEs within the stipulated 45 days, as per the MSME Act. The sector can also get huge support for cash flow streamlining, if it is made mandatory for all the State Government’s agencies/Departments/PSUs who are implementing Central/State Government Funded Schemes on the ground, to get enrolled on all or any one of the TReDS (Trade Receivables Discounting System) Platform.
As this is a continuation of the NDA government successively for the third term, we also look forward to the announcement of altogether new flagship infrastructure programs that are targeted at strengthening infrastructure in small towns and rural areas. The upcoming budget has the potential to set India on a transformative path towards becoming a global infrastructure leader.