FM holds pre- Budget consultation representatives of Infra sector

The main areas of discussion during the meeting included issues relating to bringing in more capital to the infrastructure sector such as highways, railways, telecom and automobiles, including incentives for electric vehicles as well as for the renewable energy sector, a finance ministry statement said.

New Delhi: Union Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman held her fourth pre- Budget consultation meeting with the stakeholders from Infrastructure and Climate Change Sectors.

Sitharaman will present the first Budget of the Modi 2.0 government on July 5.

The representatives have pitched for bringing in more capital to the sector such as high ways, railways, telecom, auto-mobile including incentives for electric vehicles as well as for the Green Sector including renewable energy among others.

With an eye on creating sustainable and stable opportunities, suggestions  from the representatives of Infrastructure Sector and experts of climate change included containing the rising cost of infrastructure projects, rationalisation of various levies in infrastructure sector, introduction of tax-free bonds to boost investment, streamlining of land acquisition process, creation of Green Technology Acceleration Fund, incentivising domestic manufacturing of solar energy equipment, fiscal incentives for development of Electric Vehicles industry, user development fee for up-gradation of railway stations, inclusion of telecom towers in plant and machinery category for GST purposes, promotion of non-fossil fuel based energy, redevelopment of wasteland and greater emphasis on recycling/up-cycling of waste material, im-parting Infrastructure Status to Renewable Energy sector, provisions related to scraping of old vehicles and incentivising higher investment in R&D in automobile sector among others.

Along with the Finance Minister, the said Meeting was attended by MoS Anurag Thakur, MoS Finance and Corporate Affairs, Subhash C. Garg, Finance Secretary, Girish Chandra Murmu, Expenditure Secretary, Ajay Bhushan Pandey, Revenue Secretary, Atanu Chakraborty, Secretary, DIPAM, Sanjeev Ranjan, Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Ravi S. Prasad, Addl Secy, Climate Change, MoEF & CC, V.K. Yadav, Chairman, Railway Board, Pramod Chandra Mody, Chairman, CBDT, P.K Das, Chairman, CBIC, Dr K.V. Subramanian, CEA and other senior officials of the Ministry of Finance.