The country's business community thinks the budget is bold amid economic stress

Mumbai, Ta. 01 February 2021, Monday

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's budget has been welcomed by the country's industry and is expected to accelerate reforms. The budget is also said to be bold in many ways.

Anil Agarwal, executive chairman, Vedanta Resources, said in a tweet that major projects such as strategic disinvestment in two public sector banks and one insurance company and emphasis on infrastructure would accelerate growth.

With this budget of the Finance Minister in times of unprecedented economic stress, India will be able to move up in the new world order. Proposals like special focus on infrastructure, disinvestment of public sector undertakings, increase in FDI limit in insurance are welcome, said Harsh Goenka, Chairman, RPG Enterprises.

"There are no negative proposals in the budget, which is a big thing to improve the mood," said Kiran Majumdar Shaw, executive chairperson of Biocon.

The proposal to reduce the import duty on gold from 12.50 per cent to 10.7 per cent is welcome and timely. This is probably the first time such a cut has been made to make bullion attractive as an asset class, said Somasundaram PR, managing director of the World Gold Council, in a statement.

He added that the incentives were needed to provide incentives to organized players in the bullion and gold jewelery market.

The fiscal policy formulated in the budget, aside from sovereign ratings and debt concerns, is supportive of development. The budget introduces new institutional frameworks to meet the country's economic needs, said Abhishek Barua, chief economist at HDFC Bank.