Budget 2024 is an economists' Budget, says Citigroup MD Samiran Chakraborty

Focus of Budget 2024 is not restricted to railways, defence and infra, but expands to manufacturing and employment to aid human capital growth, said Citigroup MD at 'Budget with BS: The Fine Print'

Union Budget 2024 is an economists’ budget and it will continue to focus on human capital in the next five years, Citigroup managing director (MD) Samiran Chakraborty said on Wednesday.

Chakraborty was talking at the ‘Budget with BS: The Fine Print’ — a post-2024 Budget event hosted by Business Standard, dedicated to decoding the intricacies of the key financial exercise.

“The first five years (2014-2019) was about formalisation of the economy, the next five was about infrastructure in the country. The coming five years will be about developing human capital,” Chakraborty said.
 

Speaking to Business Standard Editorial Director AK Bhattacharya, the Citigroup MD said that the party in power at the Centre is paying attention to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) as they are focusing on generating employment in India.
 

Talking about the Budget’s focus on multiple sectors, Samiran Chakraborty said that the focus is not just limited to sectors such as railways, defence and infrastructure, but also on manufacturing and employment which would “help human capital growth in India”. He further added that the Centre has addressed a broader range of economic challenges such as sanitation, irrigation, and solar power.

‘Need to boost expenditure, mobilise taxes’

Talking about India’s expenditure, Sajjid Chinoy, Chief India Economist at JP Morgan, said that the country’s expenditure needs will go up, and taxes have to be mobilised. “Over the last few years, fiscal policy has been loaded with public and private investment. India's expenditure needs will go up, and taxes have to be mobilised.”
 

On India’s private sector growth, Chinoy said, “The private sector is a work in progress, and its consumption has been tepid. It is important for the deficit to not consolidate too quickly.”

‘Job creation has taken center stage’

On the 2024 Budget focusing on job creation, Pranjul Bhandari, managing director, and chief India economist, HSBC, said that the Union Budget has brought job creation to the forefront.
 

“In terms of schemes, there are many on incentivising employment, upgrading skills, providing education loans and more loans to MSMEs which provide jobs,” Bhandari said.
 

However, he said, this is far from solving India’s job problem. “It is the right start, but it needs a large supply of capital,” Bhandari said. Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes can play a huge part in job creation if “we can get midtech FDIs”, he added.

Indranil Pan, chief economist at Yes Bank, said that Budget 2024 is a “Budget for the future”.

“This Budget says we need to have a start to reach somewhere,” he said. Pan further said that the Indian economy is stuck at pushing per capita income higher, and the package of the MSMEs should be looked at from the supply side.