CII President Sanjiv Bajaj pins hope on Budget 2023 to boost consumption demand

Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Sanjiv Bajaj, President of CII expressed that the mood in the market is cautiously optimistic, with a sense of hope that the Budget will consolidate the issues faced by the economy and take it forward.

However, he emphasised the need for the government to adhere to the fiscal deficit target of 6.4 percent for this year in order to maintain financial stability. He acknowledged that the external situation is quite uncertain and that the government continues to focus aggressively on privatization and also focus on revenue augmentation as well as boosting consumption demands to revive the economy.

He said, "The government has been very focused on an investment-led growth strategy. We hope we continue to see that in the coming budget as well, with a 35 percent increase in public capex, like the previous year, we need to continue boosting consumption demand."

Bajaj also highlighted the fact that the people of the lower income level have been hit the most by the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation and expressed hope that the government will look at rationalising personal income tax for these groups.

Sanjiv Puri, vice president of CII expressed that there are signs of a pick-up in the rural economy, which presents a great opportunity for the government to expand its production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes in sectors like apparel and toys. He believes that these sectors have the potential to create jobs and drive economic growth.

Puri said, "The PLI schemes have worked well. There is an opportunity to expand it and there is some mention of it already through some large employment generation sectors, whether there's apparel or toys, or footwear amongst others."

He added, "To build on farm incomes, to exploit the full potential of agriculture I think the trajectory that has been started in earlier Budgets, with focus on inducing technology, with focus on aggregation through FPOs, the agri-infrastructure funds, I think those are the right steps and we should build on it."

Puri also emphasised the importance of the tourism sector, which has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. He urged the government to create enabling provisions for the tourism sector to flourish. He said that tourism can create 50 million jobs in the next few years, which can be a major boost to the economy.

Chandrajit Banerjee, director general at CII emphasised the need to focus on consumption demand and pursue investment-led growth. He said the government should look at introducing an employment-linked incentive scheme to boost job creation and increase the consumption demand.

Banerjee also highlighted the need for the government to increase allocation for capital expenditure (Capex) by 35 percent. He said this would help in creating more job opportunities and boost economic growth.

One of the key areas of focus for CII, according to R Dinesh, the President-designate, is the continuation of earlier steps taken to promote public-private partnerships (PPP). He noted that PPP has been on the CII agenda for a long time and that the organization is eager to see progress in this area.