KPMG: Not seen any concrete measures in the Budget
Anish De, Partner-Infrastructure and Government services, KPMG in India said that the general emphasis on renewable energy and re-stating of the MNRE target to 175 GW by 2022, comprising 100 GW of solar, 60 GW of wind and 15 GW of other technologies is not adequate to make capacity creation happen in reality.
Prima facie, we have not seen any concrete measures in the Budget for renewable energy. Unlike rail and roads, tax-free bonds have not been specifically proposed for renewable energy. Given this, any funds from tax-free bonds will now have to come out of the general pool of infrastructure bonds.
Also, the proposals for the utilisation of funds from the increased coal cess are yet to be spelt out. It would have been better to propose specific allocations and measures for renewable energy, especially on availability of low-cost funds for the renewable energy sector.
KPMG: Welcome move to encourage job creators
Ashvin Vellody, Partner – Management Consulting, KPMG in India said that expectations from the ecommerce industry stakeholders from the Union Budget were definitely high this year, and while the Finance Minister provided a set of welcome measures, he stayed away from big bang policy announcements specific to this space. The sector expected welcome announcements on GST, and on creation of a conducive environment for foreign investment inflow and improvement in ease of doing business. The Government has now proposed introducing GST from April 2016 which will help ecommerce companies rationalize supply chains by addressing the taxation issues, In addition steps announced include progressive plans to address infrastructural challenges that will help increase reach of eCommerce, to improve connectivity in the hinterlands under the Digital India Program by accelerating the NOFN rollout. It is a welcome move to encourage job creators by introducing a 1000 cr fund to enable the technology start up eco systems to incubate new ideas. We also expect a cascading effect of the reskilling program and the plan to set up new educational institutions to provide a boost to hiring the right IT engineering talents in the long term .
But as they say, the devil is in the details, which will provide further clarity on the budget pronouncements. If these plans can be effectively executed on the ground, it will provide a fillip to the digital/ ecommerce sector.
