Budget 2022: Major winners and losers of FY22-23  

The government yesterday laid out India’s budget for the financial year 2022-23 starting April 1. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the shortest budget calling for a bigger expenditure to fire up growth in Asia’s third-largest economy. Read more to know more about Budget 2022.

Sitharaman has proposed to increase the size of the economy by increasing the annual spending to 39.5 trillion rupees (USD529 billion). Here’s a list of winners and losers from the federal budget announcements.

Winners

1. Transport, Infrastructure: Government plans to invest in remote roads, mass transit in cities and 400 new “Vande Bharat” trains in the next three years, which will benefit key infrastructure players like GMR Infrastructure Ltd., KNR Constructions Ltd., IRB Infra Ltd., among others.
2. Cement, Construction: Government will build more homes for low-income earners across cities, which means it will generate more contracts for cement and construction majors like UltraTech Cement Ltd., Ambuja Cements, etc.
3. EV Battery Makers: EV is the future and it will play a critical role in expanding India’s clean transport technology. The battery manufacturers will gain from a new swapping policy for electric vehicles announced by Finance Minister.
4. Digital Finance: Digital financial services providers like PolicyBazaar, 97 Communication Ltd., etc., are all set to gain after Tuesday’s budget.
5. Solar: The government will attach production-linked incentives worth Rs 195 billion for solar modules to boost local manufacturing. This will help the leading solar panel manufacturers like Tata Power Ltd, Reliance Industries Ltd, Adani Enterprise Ltd. etc.
6. Defense Manufacturers: Companies that manufacture defense equipment are going be benefitted as government plans to earmark 68 per cent of the sector capex for local companies in the annual budget.

Losers

1. Crypto Players: The government has decided to levy 30 per cent tax on profits from digital asset transactions, including cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens. Players that will be affected include CoinDCX, Coinswitch Kuber, among others.
2. Automobile manufacturers: Car manufacturers have not gained much from the budget amidst the global semiconductor crunch. The worst hit companies include Maruti Suxuki India, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, etc.
3. Stainless Steel: India is planning to revoke several anti-dumping and countervailing duties on coated steel flat products, stainless steel, bar of alloy steel and high speed steel, amidst the rising metal prices. The move will affect major players like Jindal Stainless Ltd., and Tata Metaliks Ltd.
4. State-Run Banks: Government is planning to start its own digital currency to reduce the dependency on traditional banking system, which will affect India’s archaic lenders like State Bank of India, Union Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, etc.
5. Coal and Thermal Power: The focus of solar energy and biomass pellets in thermal power plants −in a bid to rely less on coal will affect coal producers like Coal India Ltd., Singareni Collieries Co., etc.

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