India Budget: Well-Defined & Responsible, Attracts FDI - USISPF

Washington, Jul 24 (PTI) Describing the maiden budget of Modi 3.0 as a very well defined and responsible budget, the head of a India-centric American business and strategic advocacy group on Tuesday said that it would help in attracting more foreign direct investment and propel India's growth story.

“I think (it is) a very well-defined budget, a very well-responsible budget. We compliment the prime minister and the finance minister for delivering their budget,” Mukesh Aghi, president and CEO of US India Strategic and Partnership Forum (USISPF) told PTI in an interview.

“When you look at the preliminary analysis of the budget, one thing is the budget is focused on job creation, is focused on skilling and is focused on attracting FDI into the country,” he said responding to a question on the annual budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Parliament on Tuesday.

“When you look at incentives for the first-time workers, guaranteed one month's salary, that's an important part. The budget is focused on skilling the people, that's very important and by lowering the taxes for foreign companies that attract FDI into the country. So I think it's a very well-defined budget,” Aghi said.

“If you look at it from a macro perspective, what we are seeing is a budget, you're bringing a deficit from 5.3% to 4.9%. That means you'll have more capital available in the market for private companies also. So, what we're seeing is a partnership, a budget, which is focused on government on a central level, government on a state level, the Indian private sector, and foreign multinationals driving the economic growth story of India,” he said.

“When you look at the abundance of capital, lowering of the taxes, and market opportunity of India's growing $4 trillion to $5 trillion economy, and leveraging the high-skilled resources in India to export back, especially in the global capability centers, you will see the FDI going up in India,” Aghi said.

The USISPF chief said that the infrastructure spending and defense capital expenditure has gone up. “By bringing the deficit down, the borrowing capability of private investors also goes up. So, a combination of all those things will drive investments, job creation, consumer demands, and also exports to the rest of the world,” he said.

The budget is in the right direction of the vision of “Viksit Bharat” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“If you want to develop India, then you've got to build a foundation now by spending on infrastructure, by focusing on making India, by leveraging the service sector to export itself, by basically lowering the deficit to spur up the local consumption, is a combination of all this effort which will drive the growth story of India,” he said.

“Look at last quarter. The economy grew by 8.3%. That means if we keep on maintaining that momentum, you will reach a $5 trillion economy by 2027 and beyond itself,” he said.