ICC welcomes the Interim budget announcements aimed at Viksit Bharat. Although there are no tax tweaking as expected but the Budget is a ‘Statement of strong Intent”, said ICC statement released today.
ICC appreciates Govt.’s commitment to reduce fiscal deficit and setting a target of 5.1% for the upcoming year and finally taking it to 4.5% by 2026. This reflects a strong commitment from Government to lower borrowings and inject liquidity in the economy which may come back in the form of asset price bubbles and unsecured loan driven consumption.
In the Interim Budget 2024 has proposed to raise capital expenditure by 11.1% to ₹11.11 lakh crore. ICC lauds the Government’s unveiling of a long-term plan and sustaining Capex and Infrastructure development as a key engine of growth. The increased investment is poised to stimulate private capital expenditure and it will not only drive economic growth but also create increased employment opportunities.
Income Tax benefits for Start Ups have been extended till 31.3.25. We hope concessional Corporate Tax Rates for new Investments would be maintained in main budget 2024. The Interim Budget 2024 announced a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore will be established with 50-year interest-free loan tech-savvy growth. This will encourage private sectors to scale up Research and innovation significantly in sunrise domains. ICC lauds this initiative, as this was one of our key recommendations to raise R& D (which is currently less than 1%) as a proportion of GDP .
The focus on targeted Incentives for agriculture/farmers, carbon neutrality by 2070, building one crore rooftop solar units, green energy, connectivity, rural housing, integrated tourism projects is praiseworthy. The Budget balances growth and inflation very well. At the same time provides continuity, direction to growth initiatives. ICC welcomes the statement on the development of Eastern region and transforming the region into a growth engine for the nation.