UKIBC welcomes positive and futureproofed Union Budget 2022
By Richard Heald
The UKIBC welcomes the Finance Minister’s presentation of Union Budget 2022. We believe it will make India a more attractive destination for investors, and will help India to achieve the positive growth projections of over 8 percent in FY2022-23 and sustain high growth in the years ahead.
We particularly welcome the significant capital investment in infrastructure across transport, education, and healthcare. This will make the whole economy more productive and competitive and thus help to increase India’s attractiveness to investors.
It was also encouraging that the Finance Minister plans investment in R&D-intensive and future-facing industries like clean and sustainable energy sources, battery systems, and the continued focus on the EV sector will be important for achieving sustainable growth. Similarly, the opening-up of R&D in the Defence sector is a further opportunity for strategic co-creation between India and the UK on Defence and Security.
With the FTA negotiations now underway, UK businesses have been paying especially close attention to this year’s Budget and, from speaking with our members and clients, there is a lot of positivity. We welcome Minister Sitharaman’s reference to the importance of ease of doing business, which remains a critical issue for businesses. The digitisation of manual processes and the standardisation and removal of overlapping compliances are hugely positive.
We have long advised our members that to be successful in the Indian market, firms have to be invested in India: to be on the ground, open to transferring technology, partnering to co-create and co-develop with Indian companies.
The Economic Survey published on 31st January projected that India would be one of the fastest growing economy in the world in each of the next three years. This budget should be seen as “future focused” – a deployment of resources into key areas which will make this growth sustainable … many of which are areas which the UK business has unique capabilities. UK businesses are keen to play their part to support the Indian economy, collaborate with Indian businesses, and offer their high-quality products and services to Indian consumers.
While we look forward to further details of the Budget becoming available in the coming days and weeks, the announcements today are positive as they will increase India’s productivity and competitiveness, which is good for UK investors, for the Indian economy, and for the people of India.
