Minister of Finance, Nirmala Sitharaman, presented the Union Budget 2020-21 on Feb. 1, today. This was the second budget in the second term of the current government.
The minister said in her speech that this budget is aimed to boost incomes and enhance purchasing power, while stressing that the economy’s fundamentals are strong, and inflation is well contained.
Budget 2020 is being met with a mixed response. While the sectors like electronics manufacturing, telcos, online educators remain on the winning side, real estate segment did not have much to gain. Shares of real estate companies like Godrej Properties, Oberoi Realty Ltd., and DLF Ltd. and Prestige Estates reported to have declined when the minister did not announce any specific measure for the sector.
Dr Niranjan Hiranandani, President Naredco, says, “Marathon Budget 2020 has set a positively direction tone but failed to announce much awaited economic stimulus to fuel kickstart of $5trillion economy.
It subsequently lacked incremental allocation inadequacies with over emphasis on fiscal prudence and inflation target. With economy in doldrums and acute slump in consumption, efforts on demand creation incentives went missing. The labor-intensive real estate sector which had pegged hope on additional liquidity infusion, tax reforms and rental housing were overlooked in the budget.
Any fiscal measure in sluggish real estate sector could have provided a fillip. Wherein, tax benefits extended to both home buyers and developers in affordable housing sector will encourage more launches in this segment.
Also, abolishing of dividend distract and opening of international bullion market scores eyeballs for global investors to draw investment in Indian IFSC.”