A dispassionate analysis of the 2013-14 Central Budget proposals, though not free from scathing criticism from different quarters, shows that the Finance Minister, Mr. P. Chidambaram, has done his best to achieve a growth rate of between 6.1 per cent and 6.7 per cent for the year despite the severe resource constraints, the general industrial slowdown and the deteriorating world economic scenario. He has left no stone unturned in his effort to optimise the performance of different industry sectors. Among the industries that benefit most from the Budget is automobiles, itself an engine of growth, with the vibrant commercial vehicle segment playing an increasingly important role. The Minister didn’t belie its expectations by readily meeting the CV industry demand for a second round of JNNURM funding for buses in view of the dwindling sales of vehicles during April-December 2012. The Budget proposal for adding 10,000 buses to the existing fleet will hopefully ease bus transport in the growing cities and towns. A significant portion of the overall allocation of Rs. 14,873 crores under JNNURM this year would be utilised for buying of new buses. It may be recalled that a total of 14,000 buses sanctioned during 2009-12 had its due contribution to urban transport. Efforts will be made to persuade State transport undertakings running transport services to go in for buses that meet the technical specifications related to vehicle body building. Industry experts feel that, despite challenges faced in traffic management with growing urbanisation leading to a steady flow of immigrants from rural areas to towns and cities, public transport should receive top priority to avoid further deterioration in air quality, traffic congestion and noise pollution.
Another welcome Budget initiative relates to road infrastructural development. Besides seeking funds from multilateral agencies like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank for building roads, there are plans to set up a regulator to monitor roads and highways projects and address problems faced by investors. As of now, development of 3,000 km of roads being financed by the Government, held up due to non-availability of bidders, will be taken up soon. Further, two new industrial corridors, i.e., Bangalore-Chennai and Bangalore-Mumbai, on the lines of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor project, are underway. The new projects are part of the massive Rs. 3-lakh crore National Highways Development Programme (NHDP) aimed at building 50,000 km of highways in seven phases by 2015.
The successful completion of the projects on hand and those proposed in time would go a long way in realising the Automotive Mission Plan (AMP) targets of the auto sector’s annual turnover growth from the current $50 billion to $145 billion and its contribution to GDP from five per cent to 10 per cent by 2016.