A virtual post-budget session was organized by AMCHAM with Mr. Sanjeev Sanyal, Member, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) on July 24^th themed ‘Budget 2024: The Road Ahead.’ Ms. Ranjana Khanna, Director General CEO, AMCHAM, opened the session by saying that the annual budget presented by the finance minister sets the stage for driving the economy on a long-term growth path. She appreciated the budget proposals which focus more on simplification and ease of doing business, boost manufacturing, research and innovation, thrust on public capex, use of technology, support to women, farmers and MSMEs and promote sustainability. Ms Khanna commended the allocation of Rs. 3 lakh crores for schemes benefitting the women and drew attention to the development of GCCs, which generate 16 lakh employment per year as per the recently released economic survey. Ms. Kaku Nakhate, National Executive Board Member, AMCHAM and President & Country Head, India, Bank of America, in her opening remarks, gave a comprehensive summary of the Union Budget 2024 from different angles and opined that the budget has been fiscally prudent, inclusive and growth-oriented, focusing on creating jobs for youth, empowered women, supported the poor and cared for farmers. Ms. Nakhate highly appreciated the government’s initiatives in fiscal discipline, curtailing customs duties, ensuring energy security and climate protection. She emphasized that the budget was very progressive and well directed towards a ‘Viksit Bharat.’

Mr. Sanjeev Sanyal, in his address, highlighted many important aspects of the budget and mentioned that the budget spells out the priorities of the Indian economy, considering the highly volatile global environment. To ensure macroeconomic stability in the economy, the budget emphasized fiscal consolidation through continuous efforts to reduce fiscal deficit and restrain the debt-GDP ratio. The budget has continued the government’s endeavours to lower the cost of capital for boosting capex. The cost of equity capital has already been brought down significantly to usher in private investment. To facilitate FDI flow, the budget has taken various measures including slashing tax rates for foreign companies to 35% from the current tax rate of 40%. The move is expected to benefit foreign-owned foreign-controlled companies (FOCC). The rules and regulations for foreign direct investment and overseas investments will further be simplified to facilitate foreign direct investments. Mr. Sanyal emphasized the role of private players in investing more in R&D and imparting requisite skills to employable youth. The country needs a sizable pool of skilled manpower, which the budget has tried to garner through various incentives. Private players have a huge complementary role in supporting the newly introduced Employment Linked Incentive (ELI) and some other associated schemes to formalize the labour force. Mr. Sanyal also shared about some other innovative initiatives mentioned in the budget proposals like digitization of land records and e-commerce export hubs in PPP mode to enable MSMEs and traditional artisans to sell their products in international markets. The session was well attended and included an interaction with members from across the country.