The Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has presented his maiden Budget Speech in Parliament today. Jaitley said the Government intends to usher in a policy regime that would bring the desired growth, lower inflation, sustained level of external sector balance and prudent policy stance.

''The budget emphasizes on a bottom-ups approach to reignite growth. Allowing banks to issue long term bonds without recourse to statutory pre-emption (CRR/SLR) for financing infrastructure is a positive step,'' said SBI chairman, Arundhati Bhattacharya.

'Allowing infrastructure loans to be given for longer periods matching the life of the asset (25X4 structure) is a big positive. It will prevent undue stress in repayment of infrastructure loans and will also reduce user charges. Bank consolidation in a time bound manner is a welcome move,' she said.

'The budget will see an increase in the flow of bank credit for a wide range of sectors including retail, infrastructure, MSME, agriculture, manufacturing and exports. Setting up a fund for providing equity to MSME sector is a positive as also revising the definition of MSME,' she opined.

'Setting up of 6 more DRTs is expected to help banks in recovering dues particularly when asset quality is the number one priority of banks. Increasing the limits on section 80C from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh will also provide a boost to financial savings,' she added.

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