Quote on Budget Reaction 2022: Parle Products
“First of all, putting money in the hands of consumers really helps, so they go out and buy products. So that was more on the front of ensuring that the demand remained robust given that we have gone through two years of pandemic. That was something that industry expected, either by tax cut, or by increasing the slabs tax brackets or by probably increasing the standard deduction limit. Those were the things that we expected but not much has been done there.
However, on the second front of job creation, the government has done a lot. The budget talks about seven engines driven by PM GatiShakti that will definitely boost employment and increase the number of jobs. The budget also talked about 60 new jobs to be created in the next five years. That is relatively a longer process compared to the first expectation which was putting money in the hands of consumers, which would have yielded immediate results. A 20,000 crore boost in transportation infrastructure will definitely help in terms of job creation going forward.
Another thing the government would have ensured on the rural front was increased allocation to MGNREGA or direct benefit transfer. In Fact they chose the other way. In terms of rural demand, when you’re talking about putting money in the hands of rural consumers by increased MSP and increased MSP allocation, it is also going to have an impact on the inflation because if you increase the MSP, that eventually is going to increase the cost of agri products, primary inputs in food processing. So procurement is going to be increased. The current challenge ahead of most FMCG companies, which is managing inflation, probably would be aggravated, so I consider it to be neutral. Probably placing this money in the hands of consumers through MGNREGA or DBT would have ensured demand to remain robust.”
