Budget 2018: I must compliment Prime Minister Narendra Modi and finance minister Arun Jaitley for intense focus on fiscal prudence in this Budget. There is a huge focus in this ‘New Bharat’ Budget on inclusive growth and the farm sector, and despite that fiscal deficit targets have not been compromised.
Another path-breaking focus in this Budget is on healthcare with the announcement of a flagship National Health Protection Scheme, providing annual health insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh per family supporting more than 10 crore vulnerable families.
In addition, this ‘pro-poor Budget’ addresses rural distress by focusing on rural infrastructure, enhancing farmers’ income and supports the efforts to create a resilient Bharat – the ‘New India’. The Budget has rightfully given importance to ‘ease of living’ alongside ‘ease of doing business’. It will definitely lift millions of people out of poverty in the country.
Measures to create robust agriculture sector and initiative to develop system of optimal farm price realisation are long-pending path-breaking agricultural reforms and will go a long way in doubling farmer income by 2020. The big push to rural infrastructure development with measures such as hiking the minimum support price (MSP) to one-and-a-half times the cost of produce, allocating substantial funds to the agri and rural sphere will contribute to much needed strengthening of the rural economy which would have a domino effect in pushing the growth of the India economy. All these efforts, along with the focus on boosting rural connectivity, will definitely improve rural livelihood and boost rural consumption.
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Doubling of allocation of funds for the food processing sector will not only create far greater wealth for all the stakeholders across the agricultural value chain, but will also lead to creation of employment opportunities and strengthening of the infrastructure for India to become a global sourcing hub especially in food products.
Provision of corporate tax relief for MSMEs will benefit the entire ecosystem of small businesses, which are the engine of growth and employment generators.
At Walmart India, our business is completely focused on enabling small businesses to succeed and we’re delighted to see that this move by the government will help these small businesses to prosper. We are confident that this Budget will spur domestic consumption and will accelerate economic growth across all sectors.
By Krish Iyer, President & CEO , Walmart India
