Budget 2020 expectations: Focus on rural infrastructure

By KE Ranganathan

We are just a couple of days away from the union budget 2020 and are eager to see how our Honorable Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman provides the much-needed boost and growth impetus to our economy towards the 1 Trillion $ mark. We are expecting a "growth-oriented and people-friendly" budget to stimulate consumption and demand in the ecosystem. Focus on rural development and sectors that are labour intensive such as construction, infrastructure development, irrigation etc. to improve earnings of consumer should be among the top priorities.

Another sector that is critical for the economy and GDP growth is real estate, and support needs to be provided to access low cost capital for faster project completion and interventions to bring in more buyers in the market. We know there is a demand for 40 million houses given the current population of houses vis-a-vis people. The challenge is to get genuine builders & buyers to enter the market and do the transaction. RERA is in the right direction.

Talking about our industry - Bathroom Fittings, we would urge the Centre to rationalize Goods and Services Tax (GST) to 5 per cent from the existing 18 per cent to pare down the cost and encourage personal hygiene. As part of the Swachh Bharat Mission, it is important to make hygiene product and other sanitaryware products like faucets & fitting to be available at an affordable rate to people for improved penetration of toilets in India.

(Author is MD, Roca Bathroom Products Private Limited)