Mr Sanjay Chamria, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Magma Fincorp Ltd, has said that belying lower expectations of the market and people in general, the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, has presented a very positive, inclusive and growth-oriented budget.

The Government seems to be firm on pursuing further reforms and the intention is articulated in the budget which proposes to introduce Bills on banking, insurance; pensions and companies in this session or this fiscal which will restore confidence of the foreign investors, he said.

The Finance Minister has ensured renewed thrust on the rural infrastructure and agri-economy with higher allocation of Rs 58,000 crore for Bharat Nirman and proposing to invest in a four-point programme to improve agri productivity and storage. This will boost the economy and result in more entrepreneurs in the rural India, Mr Chamria said.

Lower fiscal deficit and lower than expected borrowings of government will help achieve better liquidity and interest scenario for the private sector, including AFCs.

Rural housing

Mr Mukehrjee has taken measures on rural housing by setting up a Rs 3,000-crore fund, increased limit to Rs 15 lakh from Rs 10 lakh for interest subsidy and increased limits of priority home loans to Rs 25 lakh from Rs 20 lakh.

All this will lead to overall growth of affordable housing and related core sectors such as cement, steel, transportation and financial services for these sectors, he said.

“Though the budget announced an increased FII limit including on investment in infrastructure, from $5 billion to $25 billion and higher infra spend at Rs 2.14 lakh crore, we would have liked to see more concrete measures on infrastructure project execution and stream lining of related governmental clearances. Even now, land acquisitions, environmental clearances and local government or political issues continue to keep stalling many worthy infra projects,” Mr Chamria said.

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