This has been a very balanced budget with fiscal prudence getting very clearly reflected, says Dinesh Kumar Khara, chairman of State Bank of India (SBI), the largest Indian bank. That the tax collections have been going up is a good trend and as it appears, likely to say on, he says. In particular, he points to the new initiatives like those relating to solarisation. He is referring to the measure announced by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on rooftop solarization. “One crore households will be enabled to obtain up to 300 units free electricity every month,” she said pointing to the benefits that would accrue such as “savings up to fifteen to eighteen thousand rupees annually for households from free solar electricity and selling the surplus to the distribution companies; charging of electric vehicles; entrepreneurship opportunities for a large number of vendors for supply and installation; employment opportunities for the youth with technical skills in manufacturing, installation and maintenance.”
The solarisation efforts, Dinesh Kumar Khara says, “will lead to significant and positive impact towards reduction of dependence on fossil fuels. These measures are in the direction of reducing our crude imports which will help build forex reserves, ensure better trade balance and eventually get to strengthening the currency in the days to come.”
Apart from this, the SBI chairman also points to the measures announced for the “housing for middle class.” This will also boost core sectors of the economy like steel and cement by raising demand for them. The minister had said that the government would “launch a scheme to help deserving sections of the middle class living in rented houses, or slums, or chawls and unauthorized colonies to buy or build their own houses.