India Budget 2023-24: Allied segments look for balanced incentives

Speaking on her expectation from the Budget, Neha Kant, Founder & CRO of innerwear brand Clovia, said, “We expect the Union Budget to include incentives to enable empowerment of women entrepreneurs in tier 2,3,4 geographies (including the ones who may be running small enterprises from their homes) to become self-reliant and further scale their enterprise. This is in line with Clovia's Partnership Program wherein we are already assisting buddy entrepreneurs to build their technical expertise, develop products and create sustainable revenue streams for themselves. Policies and relief measures to assist domestic manufacturers like us in developing a strong homegrown brand would also help boost the retail landscape."

Gurudas Aras, Strategic Advisor & Independent Director and Former Director at A.T.E Group told Fibre2Fashion, “Amended Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (ATUFS) should be replaced with a new PLI-type scheme. The textile machinery industry also needs ATUFS type fund. Dedicated PM MITRA parks should be set up for the textile machinery manufacturing sector. Duty-free imports should be restored against made-up exports.”

Rahul Tikoo, Managing Director – India Sub-continent & Polyurethanes South Asia Business, Huntsman, said, “With increasing focus from the government to increase the capacity of manufacturing chemicals and petrochemicals, we are confident that the finance minister will come out with a Budget that will provide a boost to the sector. The government’s proposal to reduce customs duties on certain key chemicals in last year’s Union Budget was a huge relief and will aid in expanding the chemical industry’s scope and integrating it into the circular economy. Consumer spending patterns influenced by COVID-19 and global supply chain disruptions have created significant opportunities, compelling specialty chemical companies to re-evaluate their manufacturing footprints to participate in this growth.”

Kuldeep Singh, Founder and CEO of footwear brand San Frissco expects the Budget to provide a level playing field and prevent Chinese imports into India. “We urge the government to reduce the GST on footwear to the same level as it was in the previous fiscal year. Concessional imports of raw materials, equipment, and technology are also required if India is to produce goods of the finest quality.”

Singh said that the industry anticipates subsidised financing options and interest rate subvention for emerging companies in India in order to compete with overseas brands. “We need to rationalise and standardise a lot of government procedures so that there is much ease of doing business for all exporters. Footwear should be granted higher rate of RoDTEP. Additionally, we are seeking lower duty on raw material, an interest subsidy, a refund in the highest income tax bracket, social security and a PLI programme from the forthcoming Union Budget.”

Harshwardhan Patwardhan, Co-founder of footwear brand Chappers said, “Lower GST would help the overall footwear industry as it would mean lower upfront costs while buying raw materials and also lower MRPs for customers to buy, which would mean higher demand for our products.”

Apurva Mankad, CEO & Founder of global transportation & logistics SaaS provider WebXpress said, “Logistics has been a high priority area for this government, with continuous investment in multi-modal parks, ports, airports and roads. Also, PM Gatishakti is a flagship programme to create a Digital Logistics Stack on lines of UPI. We expect the finance minister to announce further funding for this programme. Given India’s commitment towards meeting Net Zero targets and to balance massive US subsidies under Inflation Reduction Act, we expect government to announce scheme to keep manufacturing of EV batteries, solar panels etc in India.

“We expect the finance minister to announce a larger Budget to kickstart Scrapping Policy for old vehicles. The government announced the policy, but the response has been lukewarm. The programme offers sops to vehicle owners as well as scrapping facility providers.”

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KUL)