Evenly Balanced Budget, Says Alstom India

The Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was evenly balanced budget between industry and common people. Given the limited fiscal space, Mr Jaitley has taken several small but positive steps instead of any big bang reform announcements. While there are positive initiatives towards power sector including UMPPs and renewable projects, one needs to see the execution speed, particularly in view of huge NPAs stuck with IPPs and state discoms.

The Budget proposal to set up five ultra-mega power projects of 4000 MW each is a welcome move. The Budget has also proposed tax free infrastructure bonds for projects in the rail, road and irrigation sectors.

"The ambit of such instruments must be expanded to include power as well, given that power sector also needs sizeable investments in line with the government's commitment of power to all by 2022," said Rathin Basu, country president of Alstom India and South Asia.