The Finance Minister seems to have touched all the levers while presenting the Interim Budget today and the infrastructure sector has survived the axe said Shankar Raman, the finance chief at Larsen and Toubro.
There is a lot of work in progress for the future but the roadmap has not been indicated he said.
There seems to be a thrust to the sector especially looking at the linkage of the Delhi - Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) and the dependence on public private partnership (PPP) are all continuing themes said Raman.
For the entire budget speech click here
Below is the interview of Shankar Raman, the finance chief at L&T with Latha Venkatesh and Senthil Chengalvarayan on CNBC-TV18.
Latha: Shankar you must have done the math, do you think there is enough in this Budget to improve your order list?
A: I have not done the math but according to my assessment FM seems to have touched all the levers. It did look like a report card of the past ten years. There is a lot of work in progress for future but the roadmap has been indicated. From our sector I am glad that infrastructure has survived the axe and there is a thrust to infrastructure more specifically I think the linkage of the Delhi - Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) and the dependence on public private partnership are all continuing themes.
However, it is important of course is to ensure that the people who are going to participate in all these sectors from the private sectors are enabled funding wise. Many of the projects are stuck in several issues so there must be an amount of work done to unclog them before we can look to infrastructure really growing in the back of PPP.
Latha: Let me ask you on specific thing, people who make road construction equipment would get a fillip because we have withdrawn the CVD exemption on comparable imports. Will that make a big difference for those who are making road construction equipments?
A: Yes to some extent but I think the issues are far deeper; it definitely is one of the enablers.
Latha: So, anyways from now too the presentation of the new Budget, Does life change for you Shankar?
A: I think nothing much might happen between now and presentation of the full Budget, what of course is going to be witnessed is continuing effort to push ahead wherever the projects have been cleared. There have been lots of statistics that we have given about on 296 projects cleared and fuel supply arranged for power sector etc.
I think such of those which are the better end of the project cycles will possibly move forward in the hope that things will get better post elections and new policy is in place.
For the entire interview watch video
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