A tightrope walk well achievedThe finance minister had to walk a tightrope in terms of consolidating growth while controlling the fiscal deficit. He has managed this quite well. For the infrastructure and housing sector the budget has several positives. Allocation for infrastructure has been hiked to 46% to Rs. 1.73 lakh crore. The FM has announced the government’s intention to build 20 kms of national highways a day and the allocation for road construction has been hiked by 13%.Similarly power sector allocation has been hiked by 100%. The announcement that IIFCL disbursements will touch Rs. 9,000 crore this fiscal going up to Rs. 20,000 crore next year would give a further boost to investments infrastructure. What will further boost investment in infrastructure is the additional allowance of Rs. 20,000 in standard deduction in case of investment in specified infrastructure bonds. The process of competitive bidding for coal blocks will be positive for companies wanting to set up power plants and will remove several anamolies from the present process.For the housing sector, the continuation of the interest subvention of one per cent for housing loans up to Rs. 10 lakh is welcome as it gives a further boost to the affordable housing sector. The extension of deadline for profit based deduction for ongoing real estate projects will help the industry which is just about recovering from last year’s financial meltdown.
Mr. Rupen Patel, MD, Patel Engineering
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