The Union Budget has given a great boost to agriculture but has remained tepid on infrastructure, Hemant Kanoria, CMD, Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd, said.
"This is the first budget in decades which has rightly given an 'implementation' based thrust to agriculture and rural segments. It is not only about vision, but would actually act as a booster for the economy, covering the largest segment of our country’s population,” he said in a statement.
This Budget, he said, has not only substantially enhanced the outlay for agriculture, but has also factored in proposals for other agri-value chain right from irrigation to credit enhancement to procurement of agri-produce to market access or usage of digital platform to reach out to larger sections of the rural population.
The rural sector will also largely benefit from the social sector schemes.
“The move to open up marketing of food products produced and manufactured in India to 100 per cent FDI deserves special mention," the Srei CMD said.
According to Kanoria, announcements pertaining to infrastructure have not have the specificity for implementation, unlike agriculture, which has left him disappointed.
"The infrastructure sector, which is the backbone of the economy, has been addressed, but the announcements will take a long time for implementation,” he said, adding that proposals to introduce a Bill on resolution of disputes, to form new guidelines for renegotiation of PPP concession agreements and to have a new credit rating system for infrastructure projects are steps in the right direction, but an immediate time-frame for implementation should have been articulated.
However, the issues on 'ease of doing business' and 'tax simplification and streamlining' seem to have been over-looked.
“The corporate sector will not have much to rejoice for. The additional Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT) beyond a certain amount of dividend, trebling of Securities Transaction Tax (STT) for options, the introduction of new cesses in certain categories are some of the steps which are unlikely to go down well,” Kanoria pointed out.
The defence sector, he felt, too has been overlooked especially when it is an integral part of the “Make In India” campaign.