Budget 2019 is Blueprint for Creating $5-trillion Economy by 2025, Says India Inc

New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's maiden Budget is "mega investment-oriented" with a blueprint to transform India's economy to reach USD 5 trillion by 2025, India Inc said Friday.

While Vedanta Resources Chairman Anil Agarwal termed it a progressive Budget, RPG Enterprises Chairman Harsh Goenka said it was a blueprint to achieve exponential growth.

Presenting the first Budget of the Modi government in its second term, she said the Indian economy, which stood at USD 1.85 trillion five years ago, has reached USD 2.7 trillion now, and is within capacity to reach USD 5 trillion in the next few years.

Agarwal said it was a progressive budget which focuses on core issues of health, sanitation, water, welfare of the people as well strengthens the foundation of New India that is prepared to ride the wave of mega technological changes.

"FM Sitharaman walked in with a red cloth bag carrying the budget vs the traditional briefcase. What came out was a new era in Indian history a union budget that didn't talk granular numbers rather laid a blueprint for exponential growth!" Goenka tweeted.

Lauding Sitharaman, Biocon Chairman Kiran Majumdar-Shaw tweeted, "As a business woman I can't help but burst with pride to see a woman FM deliver such a confidence boosting budget 2019."

CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said the budget is a popular budget without being populist. "It has announced initiatives which touch all segments of the society women, youth, farmers, entrepreneurs, students and industry. It benefits both rural and urban India all within the limited fiscal space available to it," he said.

Assocham President BK Goenka said Sitharaman's maiden budget is a mega investment-oriented initiative with a strong focus on scaling up rural infrastructure and demand along with a slew of tax simplification measures aimed at boosting growth and maintaining high level of fiscal discipline.

"This is a transformational budget, aimed at taking the Indian economy to USD 5 trillion by 2025," he added.

Goenka said the increase in the threshold for lower corporate tax of 25 per cent to Rs 400 crore annual turnover would encourage higher investment, which would also get a boost from proposals like further liberalisation of foreign direct investment (FDI) norms in sectors like insurance intermediaries and aviation.

Ficci President Sandip Somany said there are several positives in the budget, and it provides a set of benefits for most segments of the society. We see a clear action plan for realising the vision of making India a USD 5-trillion economy over the next few years with a focus on ease of living.

Apollo Hospitals Group Chairman Prathap Reddy said the budget presented a long term vision to achieve a USD 5 trillion economy by 2024.

"The government's focus on infrastructure continues, which is the need of the hour. We have set a laudable target of becoming USD-5 trillion economy in the next few years. This calls for a sustained real GDP growth rate of 8 per cent with stringent commitment to fiscal discipline," Wipro Enterprises CFO Raghav Swaminathan said.

Dalmia Bharat Group Managing Director Puneet Dalmia said the budget this year has its heart in the right place, specifically in context of balancing the rural and the urban developmental priorities, boosting investment to spur growth and the eco friendly development thrust as is evident in the government's emphasis on green and sustainable practices.