Equipment financing will leverage infrastructure projects in the country: ICEMA

ICEMA in its 4th Annual Finance Conclave emphasized on the need of creating a strong and digitally enabled financial ecosystem to serve the financing need of the equipment industry, and support the economic growth of the country. Availability and accessibility to adequate capital to finance the infrastructure and construction equipment is a critical area that needs focused attention for the execution of infrastructure projects in a time-bound and cost-effective manner. Deliberating on the subject of 'Bringing a Paradigm Shift in Financial Eco-system: Digitalisation and Beyond, Anil Kumar Lahoti, Chairman & CEO, Railway Board stated that Infrastructure act as a technique for economic growth by driving expansion of the industries, mining, Intermodal transfers, development of all sorts of commercial activities, townships, etc. Infrastructure is crucial basic for the growth of the country and the government strongly believes that infrastructure development is the driving force for the economy, which will help India become a developed nation. "Transport infrastructure forms an important part of this development, and the government has raised sector spending significantly for the year 2023-24 by more than 37% to Rs 10,00,000 crore," said Lahoti who graced event as the chief guest.

"The National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) has set a target of investing Rs 110 trillion for the period 2025 for supporting development of infrastructure which is a testimony of the focus that the government is giving on infrastructure development. PM Gati Shakti, a digital platform, is an important step to accelerate and facilitate infrastructure development in the county. The aim of the program is to provide multi-modal connectivity infrastructure to various economic zones by bringing together 16 ministries which are dealing with different aspects of the infrastructure which includes railways and roads for integrated planning and coordinated implementation of projects in cooperation with the state governments. The program intends to prioritize all mega and persistent connectivity targets by financial year 2025," said the Railway Board Chairman.

Dimitrov Krishnan, ICEMA President and Volvo CE India Managing Director, emphasised on bringing all stakeholders together including banking and financial institutions and fintech companies for infrastructure financing as construction equipment account for nearly 15-20 % of infrastructure project cost, and 90 per cent of the construction equipment is purchased on finance in India. Speakers from across the CE industry and others highlighted the need for Fintech and data analytics to get meaningful insights into customer credit history and asset life. The day-long event was attended by various personalities from across the industry including Ashok Sharma, Chief General Manager, SBI, and Gokul Chaudhri, President-Tax, Deloitte India.