Post-Budget Reaction Quotes from Industry Experts & Business Leaders from Various Sectors

2024-11-22 06:48:09 Government

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Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal presented an Interim Budget for 2019 in Parliament on 1st Feb. Here are reactions to the budget proposals from experts and business leaders from various sectors

As per the 2019 budget Electric vehicle is a key part of government?s vision for 2030 budget. Also it has been indicated that next decade will witness a greater push towards electric vehicles.

However considering the environment concerns we were hoping for something concrete in the 2019 budget. Moreover to meet the target of 2030 the government needs to plan today instead of giving the electric vehicles a push at a later stage. -- Mr Ayush Lohia, CEO Lohia Auto Industries.

Comprehensive Wellness for Healthy India needs bigger collaborations?
- Dr Aashish Chaudhry, Managing Director, Aakash Healthcare

The Interim Budget 2019, presented in the Lok Sabha today, reaffirms the government?s commitment to improve healthcare systems in the country, said Dr Aashish Chaudhry, Managing Director, Aakash Healthcare.

Reacting to the Interim Budget announcements, he said, ?The government has presented a positive Interim Budget for the sector. Creating distress-free health delivery systems with necessary infrastructure for comprehensive wellness of the people would be a game changer. However, Comprehensive Wellness for a Healthy India needs bigger collaborations and all stakeholders including private providers need to participate proactively.?

?Bigger collaborations and participation in schemes and plans for prevention, wellness, sanitation, pollution check, digital infrastructure, medical education, and curative care would pave ways for a healthy India. With Vision 2030 in place, the government is expected to provide a new momentum to bigger collaboration among stakeholders,? Dr. Chaudhry added.

Focus on ?Healthy India? is the key takeaway: NATHEALTH
As India aspires to become USD 10 trillion country by 2030, inclusion of ?Healthy India? in the government?s 10 key priorities under ?Vision 2030? is one of the key takeaways from today?s Budget and emphasis on Health Assurance with necessary infrastructure, sanitation, pollution control for comprehensive wellness of people would go long way to achieve the goal of sustainable and inclusive development, according to NATHEALTH.

?Creating a robust health delivery system for comprehensive wellness of the people would be game changer. India?s NCDs burden is rising alarmingly and it is estimated to cost $6 trillion by 2030. We need to declare war on NCDs and address the critical need for strengthening the Primary Care framework focused on prevention. The Vision 2030 announced would be a critical step to stem the tide now. Proactive steps by a forward-thinking government can help enablers in healthcare to win the war against the disease burden in our country,? said Mr Daljit Singh, President, NATHEALTH. According to NATHEALTH, with Ayushman Bharat scheme in place, healthcare is expected to scale-up
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?NATHEALTH welcomes the scaling up plans for the Ayushman Bharat Mission and the government?s focus on universal health coverage that improves India?s march towards a Swasthya Bharat. However, we believe it has to be done collaboratively through value based scientific costing driving sustainable pricing supported by improved ecosystem efficiency gains. This is only way to improve quality and health outcomes over the longer term towards our goals of a healthy India,? said Mr Siddhartha Bhattacharya, Secretary General, NATHEALTH.

According to NATHEALTH, the Interim Budget 2019 appears to be a comprehensive, wide ranging and balanced, with many positives for the health sector, however, the government needs to revisit unfinished agenda such as ?Priority Sector? status to Healthcare for smooth credit flow, mandatory universal health insurance, tax incentives for capacity building, creation of a dedicated infrastructure and innovation fund, while presenting Union Budget 2019-20 couple of months later.

Government has considered all the sections and this will create comprehensive benefit to economy

The budget has been indeed surprising as it?s different from the predecessors. A lot of rebates and good news on tax front for middle class. Income tax rebate for individuals earning till 5 lakhs is going to prove beneficial to the middle class and something that they have surely wished for. It is in fact beyond their expectation. Apart from this lot of other reforms have been proposed to support the Taxpayer like increase in standard deduction for salaried individuals, raising the TDS limits, Exemption from tax on Second Self occupied house etc

Then the government has also planned to give 12 crore farmers 6000 rupees. This is another silver lining in the budget and a big move which will uplift their current condition.

Even on the security front they have spent 3,00,000 crore which is again a gigantic and a much needed move.

So be it escalating living standards by their cleanliness drive, providing benefit to the common man, the farmers or strengthening security, all in all the government is surely far sighted. It is working at the root level for that.

Mr. Rajeev Kapur, Managing Director, Steelbird Helmets

?The budget gives much awaited technology push for the fast paced Indian economy. The CoE of Artificial Intelligence (AI) reaffirms government?s intention and interest in pushing India to develop as hub of emerging technologies. It shall also prove to play a pivotal role in massification of ground-breaking technologies as well as providing headwind to the ongoing skill development and job creation agenda. It is a huge opportunity for the tech start-ups, and the contribution of India Inc. in the initial stages of implementation shall prove to be significant.

The budget overall is positive and covers the entire gamut of economic pillars in one go - farmers, youth, start-ups, women, middle-class segment, defence, green energy, industries etc. It promises to make social security accessible to the unorganised segment. The intent with which the budget has been designed will be best experienced with an effective execution. - Mr. Snehashish Bhatacharjee, Global CEO, Denave

Union budget, 2019-20 gives more focus on affordable healthcare for all

The 2019-20 union budget comes as a cheer to many due to the government?s attempt of creating a mass -budget this year with special focus on rural health. Ayushman Bharat Scheme that was launched last year for providing medical treatment to around 50 crore people have so far treated 10 lakh people who could save nearly Rs 3,000 crore. This is a great achievement by the country?s healthcare and roping in private hospitals to the scheme as proposed by the government last year will certainly provide more teeth to it. However, more allocation of fund for appropriate execution of the scheme was a necessity and was expected. Apart from announcing about 14 new AIIMS since 2014, the announcement regarding setting up of 22nd All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Haryana is a welcome move towards enhancing advanced medical research in India, producing a greater number of qualified medical professionals and expanding opportunities for the aspiring medical students of the country. The government?s vision towards having a distress free healthcare and a functional, comprehensive healthcare system by 2030 are praiseworthy.

Availability of drugs at a subsidised price at Jan Aushadhi Kendras and implementation of a price cap on drugs have made medicine affordable for all. With five lakh villages being declared open-defecation free along with achievement of over 98% rural sanitation coverage, there will be a certain improvement in both rural and urban health condition.
- Shanthini Arunthavanathan, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Westminster Healthcare, Chennai

"This is a great budget for patients as well as consumers . Last five years have seen massive improvement in healthcare services. Ayushmaan Bharat, world's largest health scheme targeting 50 crore people is a boon for India. Prices of medicines and surgical instruments has been decreased dramatically. At the same time new approaches such as regenerative medicine are being streamlined into the main stream medicine."
- Mr. Vipul Jain, CEO, Advancells

"This is a happy budget for our Tax Payers. However it was a neutral budget this time for Auto industry. Although, it has comprehensively focused on Electric cars which are a need of the hour in India, Keeping in mind the environment concerns. We are hoping for favorable policies on Startup Taxation and Fundraising in 2019 budget."
- Mr. Ram Jaiswal, Checkmygaadi.com

''As India?s largest early payment platform, we at Priority Vendor believe that the interim budget carries some of the significant developments, especially for our SME partners. Businesses registered as SMEs will now receive a 2% loan relaxation by the government, thus easing their access to organised credit facilities. Furthermore, the announcement also gave a boost to SME suppliers, making it mandatory for the government projects to source 25% of their requirements from SMEs. The segment has also been bogged down with the GST compliance, however as per the announcement, SMEs with a turnover of less than 5 Cr need to only file GST once in three months.''

While the SME segment would be appeased, we believe the interim budget to also be forward-looking. India has already emerged as the second largest hub for start-ups and the government has vowed to support advanced technologies like AI by setting up a national centre for artificial intelligence. We believe it will propel India on the path of emerging as the key centre for growth and innovation. With artificial intelligence constituting the very fabric of our platform, we are excited about this development and look forward to being part of an innovating, enterprising, and digital India.
- Kunal Agarwal, Co-Founder and CEO of Priority Vendor

?This budget is providing major boost to real estate segment through fiscal incentives like extension of benefit Under Section 80 IBA, no tax on notional rent on unsold inventory for two years, no notional rent on two self-occupied properties instead of one. Additionally, direct benefit of INR 6,000 to small farmers will provide positive sentiments and will have positive cascading effect on GDP growth. We welcome the step to promote AI hubs in India which will help to build technical competence and have long lasting impact from technology point of view for the future of India.

This budget has populist and election oriented flavour, Government will have to balance the spending and keep the fiscal deficit under control.?
- Mr. Arun Nathani, CEO, Cybage

?The interim budget, the government has rightly comprehended the necessity and competence of digital technologies such as AI, machine learning, big data and more. We are glad to find out the government?s plans of developing a National Artificial Intelligence portal, which will significantly boost research and development measures and thus allow businesses of all sizes and sectors to gain better data-driven and decision-making insights and advance the nation in competitive global space.?
- Mr. Arun Balasubramian, Managing Director ? Qlik India

The government has continued to stress upon digitalisation, as reflected in the interim budget 2019 announcement. In the words of the interim Finance Minister, digitalisation is going to play a key role in achieving sustainable growth and development. The government further aims to achieve one lakh digital villages in the next 5 years and we believe that it is going to pave the way for India to emerge as one amongst the leading digital economies, across the globe. The current plans and aspirations of the government will also boost the rural digital economy. At Telebu, we are excited to be part of this wave of change, as it helps accelerate our overall goal of proliferating into rural, as well as tier-2 and tier-3 cities. We will continue to build innovative enterprise communication products for Indian enterprises, MSMEs, start-ups, non-profit organisations and more.
- Mr. Satya Kalyan Yerramsetti, Founder & CEO of Telebu