The Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman held her Fourth Pre- Budget Consultation Meeting with the stakeholders from Infrastructure and Climate Change Sectors here yesterday.

The main areas of discussion during the aforesaid Meeting included issues relating to bring in more capital to the infrastructure 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.

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

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.

Stakeholders of Infrastructure Sector and experts on Climate Change who participated in yesterday’s Meeting included Shri Nagendranath Sinha, Chairman, NHAI, Shri Sanjeev Kumar Lohia, MD & CEO, Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation, Shri Praveen Kumar, Additional CMD, Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA), Shri Mahendra Singhi, President, Cement Manufactures’ Association, Shri T.K. Malhotra, President, Automobile Association of Upper India (AAUI), Shri Ajay Mathur, DG, TERI, Shri Gautam Chikermane, Vice-president, Observer Research Foundation, Shri Shibani Ghosh, Centre for Policy Research, Shri Rajesh Chharia, President, Internet Service Providers  Association of India, Shri T.T. Dua, DG, Tower & Infrastructure Providers Association, Shri Rajan Wadhera, President, Society of Indian Automobile Manufactures, Shri Varun Khanna, Cellular Operators Association of India, , Shri Rahul Sharma, MD, Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMVE) and Shri Manoj Kohli, Executive MD, SB Energy (Softbank Group) among others.

Infrastructure financing priorities: fiscal and regulatory measures proposed to mobilise investment and incentivise green and transport sectors. Pre-budget consultations sought policy and fiscal measures to mobilise capital and reduce costs for infrastructure projects, proposing tax-free bonds, levy rationalisation, streamlined land acquisition, GST reclassification for telecom towers, and user development fees for railway upgrades. Climate-focused proposals recommended a Green Technology Acceleration Fund, Infrastructure Status for renewable energy, incentives for domestic solar manufacturing and electric vehicles, vehicle-scrapping provisions, enhanced recycling, and increased R&D support in the automobile sector.