India Inc gives thumps up to Union Budget 2023

Bengaluru: Union Budget 2023 brought cheers for India Inc as the Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman announced a slew of measures including massive push to infrastructure spending, relief to MSMEs, boost to startups and technology sectors along with ease of doing business among others.

The budget proposed to raise investment outlay in infrastructure sector to Rs 10 lakh crore for FY24, a jump of 33 per cent over FY23. Similarly, Indian Railways got a capital outlay of Rs 2.40 lakh crore in the budget, making it the highest ever capital outlay for railways till date and is nine times the outlay provided to railways in 2013-14. Such capital expenditure outlay is likely to support growth in road, construction and railways in the next financial year.

For the MSME sector, the FM announced revamping of the credit guarantee scheme through the infusion of Rs 9,000 crore in the corpus. This will enable additional collateral-free guaranteed credit flow of Rs 2 lakh crore to the sector, while the cost of credit will be reduced by around one per cent.

This year's budget provided a solid push to various digital India initiatives, which will support in enhancing efficiencies of multiple sectors.

The budget proposes to set up an 'Entity DigiLocker', which will be set up for use by MSMEs, large business and charitable trusts. This will enable companies to store documents online in a secured manner so that these can be, whenever needed, shared with various authorities, regulators, banks and other business entities easily. It also proposes to launch a unified Skill India Digital platform for enabling demand-based formal skilling apart from facilitating access to entrepreneurship schemes. This will also create job opportunities for potential candidates by linking it with employers, including MSMEs.

Union Budget 2023 provides a strong impetus to digital technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and 5G among others. The government plans to set up three "Centers of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence" in top educational institutions. These centers will have a mandate to develop practical AI applications in agriculture, health, and sustainable cities apart from creating a skilled AI workforce.

As the country rolls out 5G network, the budget on Wednesday proposes to set up 100 labs for development of applications using 5G services in areas, including smart classrooms, healthcare and smart cities. To create a huge workforce in emerging technologies, the government will launch the 'PM Kaushal Vikaas Yoajna 4.0' to skill the Indian youth in new-age courses including coding, AI, robotics, mechatronics, IOT, 3D printing, drones, and soft skills.

With 100 unicorns, India has emerged as the third largest startup ecosystem in the world. The Union Budget proposed a slew of measures to further bolster India's position in the global arena.

The FM announced an agriculture accelerator fund to promote innovation in agriculture sector in the country. She said this fund would be set up to encourage agritech startups by young entrepreneurs. The budget proposes to extend the benefit of carry forward of losses for startups from the current 7 years to 10 years from the date of incorporation of the firm. Also, the time period on income tax benefit to companies registered as startups increased further by another year.

To boost electronics manufacturing further, the budget proposes a cut in customs duty on the import of certain inputs for mobile phone manufacturing. The FM also announced cut in customs duty on parts of open cells of TV panels along with incentives for electric vehicles.

Leaders of India Inc welcomed the steps proposed in the budget, terming it as forward looking and balanced one.

"Budget with vision, structure, discipline. Immediate benefits to all individual earners. Continues measured path of fiscal consolidation. Sets foundation to increase every Indian's per capita income exponentially from 1.97 lakhs( 2400$). True to its name: first budget for Amritkaal," Uday Kotak, CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank wrote on Twitter.