A day after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Interim Budget for FY25, Rajesh Singh, Secretary, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), on Friday suggested the two supreme highlights of the budget: India's decision to walk on the path of fiscal consolidation and the decision to continue giving primacy to investment in infrastructure.
The DPIIT Secretary also emphasised the allotment of funds to the state governments to provide interest-free loans to the private sector through two separate windows. as the capital expenditure witnessed an 11% increase. Through the two windows of ₹1.3 lakh crore and ₹75,000 crore, private sector will be provided interest-free loans for 50 years.
He added that the government is also looking to focus on hard infrastructure, including highways, roads, ports and specific railway corridors, which have been planned under the PM Gati Shakti Scheme. This will ensure multi-modal connectivity by improving connectivity and reducing the cost of logistics, which has been one of the key demands for companies looking to set up manufacturing units in India.
Singh said, “The recent surveys that we've done with the help of NCAR based on the national accounts data show that there is some improvement. The logistics costs are coming down in India.”
Emphasising the ₹1 lakh crore that has been allotted for research and development (R&D) by the private sector and startups, Singh said, “We hope that the private sector can leverage this money to enhance their R&D investment in India, which is quite low at the present moment. We hope the availability of this kind of patient capital will lead to India increasingly becoming a much more innovation-led economy.”
He added that the modalities of distribution of this fund are still in progress; however, the intent is to reduce the gap in the availability of patient capital.
“The modalities presumably will be worked on by the Defense Ministry for the deep-tech fund for defence. And for the innovation-led sectors, it will be in consultation with the concerned ministries, including the Department of Science and Technology,” Singh added.
The budget outlay has been increased by 10% on average for most of the schemes, including the seed fund and the fund scheme. The government has been working on policies for deep tech and startups in India.
Speaking about the implementation of the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, Singh said, “DPIIT is implementing a PLI scheme for white goods, for which about ₹165 crore has been put for the next year. I think similar allocations have been individually made for the different departments.”
He added that the PLI scheme has been generating large investments, of which investments of ₹1 lakh crore, exports of ₹3 lakh crore and sales of ₹9 lakh crore have been leveraged.
Moreover, Singh has shown excitement about sectors like pharmaceuticals, mobile manufacturing, air conditioning and food processing.
Also read: Exclusive | Govt confident of managing inflation, keeping robustness of growth intact: FM Sitharaman
First Published: Feb 3, 2024 12:57 AM IST
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