Budget 2020: Infrastructure Boost

•           Ms Sitharaman is expected to announce a plan in the budget to invest Rs 105 lakh crore in infrastructure over the next five years. By then it hopes to make India a $5 trillion economy, compared with $2.8 trillion now, government sources have said.

•      To boost domestic manufacturing, the budget is also expected to increase import duties on more than 50 items, including electronics, electrical goods, chemicals and handicrafts, targeting about $56 billion worth of imports from China and elsewhere.

•          The infrastructure companies sought finance from the Centre for affordable housing and real estate sectors. They claimed that any funds allocated to these sectors in the upcoming Budget 2020 would spur the consumption of cement and steel.

•          Increase in allocation towards schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Gramin and  Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) will be positive for the infrastructure sector (Roads, Cement; etc.)

•          Increasing allocation to defence shall also boost order books of the infrastructure and capital goods companies. Moreover, the increase in allocations towards large infrastructure projects such as bullet trains, Bharatamala, Sagarmala, Smart Cities, Inland Waterways development, etc will be positive for the infrastructure players.

•          In Budget 2020, the central government should release stuck up funds which were meant for infrastructure sectors to bring back ‘buoyancy’ in the economy, the infra players told FM Sitharaman.

•          Terming the cross-subsidy and transmission charges as deterrents, infra players said that these have been making renewable energy more expensive than thermal power. They suggested that in Budget 2020, the central government should provide exemptions so that cement and other core sectors can play a pivotal part in boosting renewable energy.

•          The centre should also provide exemptions from cross-subsidy as well as transmission charges for clean energy units to be set up beyond factory boundaries.

•          The cement players have asserted that they can even set up 12GW to 15 GW of renewable energy projects provided there is a positive ambience in the country.

•          Infra players have also recommended that the centre must further fine-tune the Income Tax Act, duties and lending rates.