Industry players welcome Budget's focus on farming, sustainable tech

The government has given priority to farming sector and adoption of sustainable technologies in the Union Budget 2023-24, industry players said.

In her budget speech on Wednesday, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman made various announcements with respect to sectors like infrastructure, steel, power, railways, and agriculture, among others.

"With India holding the presidency of the G20 till November 2023, the focus on adopting green energy, and efforts to enhance BioCNG bodes well. We are pleased with the focus that the Budget has had for our industry, in particular, especially from the point of view of scrapping old/polluting vehicles, stressing the need to segregate waste and more importantly...raise funds from the municipal bond market," Jose Jacob, MD, Antony Waste Management, said.

Saurabh Shivhare, Director, Kapila Krishi Udyog, said the exemption of up to Rs 7 lakh on income tax will benefit the farmer families more. Farmers will get qualitative benefits from the far-reaching results in this. Initiatives have been announced in the budget to give priority to the works of farming, milk and fish farming, it is a welcome step and the farmer will get new energy and economic strength.

Brij Bhushan Agarwal, MD, Shyam Metalics, said the metals industry will benefit from the government's plan to increase investment in urban, transportation, and infrastructure development. Furthermore, the MSME sector has received additional attention, which will lead to increased economic activity.

Pinaki Bhattacharyya, MD and CEO, Amp Energy India, said Keeping 'green growth' as one of the 7 priorities in the Budget 2023 shows the commitment of the government towards providing continuous thrust to the green energy sector in coming years.

"However, there were some misses that the government should have announced to ensure that renewable energy generation capacity ramps up to 40-50 GW/year to meet the 2030 target of 500 GW by reducing the capital costs, financing costs and adding revenue streams like domestic environmental attributes," the MD said.