PM Modi exhorts India Inc to make most of budget, ramp up investments

'Govt paving way for collective ownership in Budget implementation'

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday urged India Inc to take advantage of the announcements made in the Budget 2023-24 and step up its investment on the back of the Centre’s capital expenditure (capex) push.

Addressing a post-Budget webinar, the prime minister pointed out that his government had raised the capex outlay for FY24 by 33 per cent to a record Rs 10 trillion. “I would call upon the private sector of the country to increase its investment just like the government, so that the country gets maximum benefit from it,” he said.

Modi said there was a time when the world looked at India with suspicion, and that discussions on India’s economy, Budget, and goals would often begin and end with a question. With India now guided by “financial discipline, transparency and inclusive approach”, the question mark has been replaced by “vishwas (trust) and apeksha (expectations),” he added.

He said the responsibility of those in the financial world had increased with India moving with new capabilities. “They have a robust financial system of the world and a banking system that is in profit after being on the verge of collapse 8-10 years ago,” he said.

Giving an example of the government’s support to the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), the prime minister asked the banking system to reach out to the maximum number of sectors. “12 million MSMEs have received huge help from the government during the pandemic. In this year’s Budget, the MSME sector has also got additional collateral-free guaranteed credit of Rs 2 trillion. Now it is very important that our banks reach out to them and provide them adequate finance,” he said at the webinar, the 10th in a 12-part series seeking ideas and suggestions for implementing the Budget.

 Modi said RuPay and the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) were not just a low-cost and highly secure technology, but also our identity in the world. “UPI should become a means of financial inclusion and empowerment for the whole world; we have to collectively work for it. Our financial institutions should also have maximum partnership with fintechs to increase their reach.” He said that in the era of ‘Industry 4.0’, platforms developed by India were becoming models for the world.

The prime minister said applications were continuously pouring in to avail of the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, which “makes India an important part of the global supply chain”. 

He further said India was being described as “a bright spot of the global economy” and the country had attracted the highest foreign direct investment in 2021-22 with a major part going into the manufacturing sector.

He said the introduction of goods and services tax (GST) and the lowering of income and corporate taxes had reduced the burden of taxpayers and resulted in better tax collection.

“Paying tax is such a duty, which is directly related to nation building. The increase in the tax base is proof that people have faith in the government, and they believe that the tax paid is being spent for public good,” the prime minister said.

The prime minister said ‘Vocal for Local’ was a national responsibility. “We have to see which are the areas where we can save the country's money by building capacity in India itself,” he said and cited examples of higher education and edible oil where “a lot of money goes out”.

For the first time, he said, more than 4 million street vendors and small shopkeepers received help from banks through the PM Swanidhi Yojana.