“With 150% increase in MSP for crops, support to organic farming, doubling the expenditure allocation to INR 1,400 crores for food processing sector, state of the art facilities to 42 food parks, liberalisation of agricultural exports, allocation of INR 10, 000 crore to fisheries, animal husbandries and related infrastructure, this budget is in true sense a Roti-Kapada and Kisaan budget”, said Anil Talreja, partner, Deloitte India on Consumer Business. This was the first statement expressed over the Union Budget, presented today by Union Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, for the fiscal year 2018-19.
The world revolves around three basic needs- food, clothing and shelter- for the human survival. Known to be the primary focus of the “early man”, these basic needs were all that was needed to spend the life and are often put in the words of “pursuits of life”. By saying such words, Talreja has reduced this Union budget, presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, back to the Stone Age, in 2018. Supposed to be the world’s fastest growing economy in the contemporary times, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has kept his main focus on organic farming, food parks, agricultural exports, fisheries, animal husbandry and related infrastructure. In other words, Finance minister Arun Jaitley unveiled a Budget designed to help distressed farmers and rural areas while boosting growth, jobs and private investment
Who all Benefit from the Union Budget
- Apart from farmers, health-care providers are the big winners. With the government’s new flagship National Health Protection Scheme, which aims to ensure as many as 500 million people for up to Rs 5 lac a year, large hospitals are to be benefited the most.
- With Jaitley promising record infrastructure spending on roads and railways, construction and engineering firms, as well as train wagon-producers, could benefit. Hence, year 2018-19 may prove to be a great boon for the transport companies.
- With 60% of gold demand coming from rural India, the budget’s focus on boosting rural and farm incomes could benefit the jewelers.
- The government pledged to expand regional airport construction. This may prove beneficial for the companies providing infrastructure to the airports.
Still, on the longer run, the government’s decision to impose long-term capital gains tax on equity investments may dent investor sentiment for financial services companies, life insurers and providers of mutual fund products, making financial sector the loser in this year. Apart from this the defense sector and non-Indian mobile phone companies are likely to suffer the most due to non-appraisal in their expenditure and focus on Modi’s “Make in India” campaign.