A day after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled Budget 2023, Road Transport & Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari stated that there will be a large number of electric vehicle manufacturers in India, the price of lithium ion batteries will fall, and the industry will no longer require subsidies.
“We have 400 startups who are making electric scooters now in India and all are now doing good business. As the number is increasing, the cost of lithium-ion batteries is going to reduce, which is why I feel that the industry doesn’t need subsidy,” told Nitin Gadkari. “Automobile industry is giving 4.5 crore jobs and giving maximum revenue as a form of GST to the central and state government,” he said.
The Union minister went on to say that the government’s priority is to increase exports while decreasing imports. According to the minister, the daily construction target is 45 kilometres of road per day, and the toll revenue will be Rs 1.40 lakh crore by the end of December 2024.
Nitin Gadkari also discussed the Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvIT) model, which is said to be the best, with an 8.5 percent return and the allocation is expected to be completed by December 2023.
“Now, it is my intention that we want investment not from the big group, not from the foreign investor, but the people like you who are journalists, the salary and people, the pensioners, we are giving them 8.5 percent returns per year and we are going to add their interest every month in their account. For the deposit in the bank, the interest rate is maximum 5.5, we are giving 8.5,” told Nitin Gadkari.
The road transport and highways ministry (MoRTH) received a boost in the Budget 2023, with the allocation increasing by 36% to around Rs 2.7 lakh crore for 2023-24. This represents a nearly 10% increase over the Budgetary allocation of Rs 1.99 lakh crore for 2022-23.
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