Piyush Goyal has done a commendable job in presenting an Interim Budget which will bring a smile to the agricultural sector.
While laying out a grand Vision 2030 for building a modern, empowered and self-sufficient India and highlighting the government's achievements of the past five years, stand-in Finance Minister Piyush Goyal has done a commendable job in presenting an Interim Budget which will bring a smile to the agricultural sector.
Given the growing signs of distress in the farm sector in various pockets of the nation, this Budget was expected to deliver special incentives for the agriculture sector. Apart from increased outlays for building rural roads and rural housing, this Budget sets out a roadmap for bolstering the rural infrastructure that will encourage entrepreneurship in allied activities such as animal husbandry and fisheries — activities which have been entitled to interest subvention of 2 to 5 per cent.
Additionally, the structured income support programme conceptualised in the form of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, aimed at farmers owning up to 2 hectares of land, will benefit 12 crore families. Farmers have also been provided relief in terms of interest subvention for loans in case of crop failure due to natural calamities. All these steps augur well to provide a push to agriculture and allied activities, and I believe this will provide a spurt to demand for agricultural equipment as well.
The vision of creating 1 lakh digital villages over the next five years is really interesting. This idea of bridging the rural-urban digital divide resonates well with our very own Sahaj initiative which has created some 75,000 digitally-empowered rural entrepreneurs in the remotest villages in 23 states. I feel there is huge scope of dovetailing the government vision with existing infrastructure. In fact, our Sahaj centres can play a meaningful role in targeted delivery of subsidies to the farming community.
The extension of the National Pension Scheme to the unorganized sector is a big step forward and will address the needs of some 42 crore workers after their retirement. The tinkering with the National Pension Scheme and Gratuity schemes also augurs well for the middle-class. Most noteworthy is the exemption of income tax on annual income of up to Rs five lakh. This, coupled with the increase of standard deduction from Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000 per annum, the increase in exemption limit on house rent for TDS calculation and increased exemption on interest earnings will provide some relief to the salaried class.
The step to exempt levy of notional income on a second property owned by a tax-payer, combined with the steps taken to encourage affordable housing augur well for the real estate sector. The recommendations of the committee that is looking into the issue of GST on housing will also hopefully provide some added impetus to this sector.
I was expecting some measures to be announced towards easing the access of funds for the infrastructure sector, especially on how to channelize long-term funds from the insurance and pension funds into the infrastructure sector. The Interim Budget could not address that. I hope that aspect would get adequately covered in the actual Union Budget 2019-20 that will be placed after the General Elections.
Hemant Kanoria, Chairman and MD Srei Infrastructure Finance
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