Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke of ‘minimum government and maximum governance.’
“This Budget finally spoke that language,” said Shobana Kamineni, President Designate, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) & Executive Vice-Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd.
“I don’t really expect them to do more. Out of 10, I would rank this budget at high 8,” she told
Infrastructure spending has been increased and only two countries — India and the US — are talking about it. Privatisation of more airports, railway stations, ports, road will kickstart the economy. They spoke about dispute resolution in public-private-partnership projects. This is an important step in ease of doing business, she said.
Giving affordable housing infrastructure status will create jobs and build capacity in around 200 other industries. That’s big positive initiative. The capital market reacted positively for extending Minimum Alternative Tax that benefit companies, including Apollo Hospitals. The market anticipated transaction tax, which did not come through, and it is happy, she said.
“We would have loved a reduction in corporate tax for all. However, they did bring it down to 25 per cent for MSMEs, which will help them,” she said.