Govt has kept the promise on roads and highways but sector needs more funds
A priority target of the Union Budget of 2016-17 was to accelerate the growth of the highways segment, considering that the road sector has been ailing for the last lustrum and beyond. To achieve this target, the infrastructure sector was allotted INR 2,21,246 crores of which a sum of Rs. 97,000 crores were allocated for investment in the year 2016-17 towards development of roads. The allocation included Rs. 27,000 crores towards Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (“PMGSY”), Rs. 55,000 crores to Minstry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRT&H) and an additional INR 15,000 crores to be raised by the NHAI through bonds. The FM also announced that amendments will be made to the Motor Vehicles Act. The Budget also announced the issuance of guidelines for renegotiation of PPP concession agreements and development of a new credit rating system for infrastructure projects. Further, the sunset clause for phasing out tax holiday granted to undertaking engaged in developing and maintaining infrastructure facilities which includes roads and highways was extended from April 1, 2016 to April 1, 2017 with the view incentivise the roads construction sector. Accordingly, suitable amendments to Section 80-IA of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (“IT Act”) was proposed in the Budget. Additionally, deduction of 100 per cent expenditure of capital nature incurred for developing or maintaining or operating roads and highways was provided by amending Section 35AD of the IT Act. On the indirect tax, however, surprisingly, a regressive step was taken by withdrawing exemption of countervailing duty being provided on import of specified machinery required for construction of roads thereby. The CVD was prescribed at 12.5 per cent. Post Budget 2016-17 – Implementation True to its promise, the Government awarded a total length of 5688 km of highways up till November 2016, out of which a total length of 4021 km has been constructed. The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2016, was introduced and required the Center to develop a National Transportation Policy in pursuance thereof. The Bill aimed at safeguarding the interest of the public and ensuring equity, while seeking to enhance private participation in the highway sector. A National Road Safety Council was constituted as the apex body to take policy decisions in the matter of road safety under the National Road Safety Policy. Further, an amount of Rs 600 crores which were earmarked for road safety purpose for the FY 2016-17 has been spent on rectification of black on the national highways. The Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) has developed a report on the framework for renegotiation of PPP contracts, with a particular focus on the National Highway and Major Ports Concessions. Based on this report, the DEA is currently working on identifying the requisite modifications/amendments to the existing MCAs; as well as the regulatory and policy regimes necessary to implement such recommendations. CRISIL, primarily in consultation with the Ministry of Finance, has developed a new credit rating framework for infrastructure projects that would facilitate greater participation by long-term investors and lenders. The new credit rating system was released on January 12, 2017, and is based on the ‘expected loss’ (EL) methodology. Budget 2017-18 Expectations A very good progress has been made as regards the various promises made out in the Budget. Having said this, the road and highway sector requires assured funding to properly plan, prepare and award projects, involving a gestation period of 3 to 5 years. The ministry of road MoRT&H has requested the Finance Ministry to allocate Rs 90,904 crore to help in timely completion of the ongoing highway projects and to compensate for the toll revenue losses following demonetisation. However, according to media reports, said indicated/estimated outlay in the budget for 2017-18 is only Rs 58,362 crore. The proposed reduction in allocation of national highway sector would cause a major setback in the progress of ongoing projects and in the achievement of targets. Thus Budget 2017-18 should address the issue of funding road projects and would be required to allocate requisite funds for completion of ongoing projects. The Government could explore looping in the State Governments and private sector for funding the projects. Budget should also propose setting up of logistics parks along national highway corridors linking ports and manufacturing hubs, setting up of bus ports with better facilities requires be given priority. The sector is also looking at setting up of ‘Automobile clusters’ across the country including Chennai. On the fiscal front, tax holiday under Section 80IA should be extended beyond April 1, 2107. The exemption from MAT is another issue which the infrastructure sector has been raising year on year should be considered since MAT results in outflow of cash which would hit the sector badly which is already facing cash crunch on account of demonetisation. Other amendments to Section 80IA and Section 35AD of the IT Act would be required to clarify that modernisation and expansion of existing roads and highways would also qualify as new infrastructure facility. Currently, there is an ambiguity as to whether modernization or expansion of existing roads and highways would qualify as new infrastructure facility qualifying for tax holding under Section 80IA and capital deduction under Section 35AD of the IT Act. It is also suggested that the exemption to CVD on machinery required for construction of road should be restored in order to incentivise the road projects. Carlos Henderson Jersey
Rs 42 lakh cr infra investments seen over next 5 years: CRISIL
With about Rs 42 lakh crore infrastructure spends lined up till fiscal 2021 amid sharpening government focus on roads, railways, irrigation, and urban infrastructure. The four segments of roads, railways, irrigation, and urban infrastructure are expected to account for over 68 percent of infrastructure investments over the next five years. Roads: CRISIL Research expects investments in road projects to double to Rs 9.8 trillion over the next five years, driven by recovery in national highways and faster completion of the rural roads programme. A number of government initiatives over the past two years have aided the pick-up in the awarding of contracts by the National Highways Authority of India, that is expected to grow at 18 percent this fiscal over the robust 43 percent growth of fiscal 2016. Railways: Railways has been another area of government focus, evident from a 21 percent higher allocation in Union Budget 2016-17. We expect investment in railways to double over the next five years until fiscal 2021 to Rs 7.2 trillion. A large portion is towards completion of projects such as the Domestic Freight Corridor. Irrigation: Investment in irrigation is expected to rise almost two times over the next five years to Rs 5.9 trillion. Six major states account for over 60 percent of the investments, with Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra being the top three spenders. The government’s bottom-up approach, well-defined systems and processes for approvals, monitoring of actual progress and fast-tracking of close to 75 projects will drive spends. Urban infrastructure: The government’s thrust on urban infrastructure development is clear with the launch of various schemes such as Smart City, AMRUT, and Swachch Bharat and emphasis on quicker execution of metro rail. Investments of Rs 5.9 trillion over fiscals 2017 to 2021 will be more than twice than in the previous five years. Power: Conventional power segment investments (as in thermal power) are set to decline while investment in renewables and transmission and distribution will rise given the government’s focus on renewable energy. Given stressed financials of private sector generation companies and lack of fresh power purchase agreements expected from distribution companies, conventional power-based capacity additions will slow down to ~47 GW over fiscals 2017 to 2021, led by central and state PSUs. On the other hand, capacity addition in the renewable space (wind and solar) are driven by strong government support, falling capital costs, and improvement in the execution ecosystem. Airport and ports: Investment in airport infrastructure and ports will remain muted over the next few years. While airport infrastructure would incur spends worth Rs 250-275 billion, port investments will be pegged at Rs 325-375 billion. The contribution of greenfield airports will increase to 75-80 percent by fiscal 2021 compared with 40-45 percent in fiscal 2016. Slower pick-up in Tier II and Tier III city airports will lead to the slow momentum. In ports, a 2-4 percent expected rise in port traffic until fiscal 2021 would be led by improvement in the petroleum, oil and lubricants (POL), iron ore, and container segments. With these planned investments, the overall capacity would grow at 3-5 percent compound annual growth rate to reach 2,008 million tonnes by fiscal 2021. Joe Colborne Jersey
Rural Housing targets in 2016-17 absolutely doable-MoRD
Department of Rural Development was given a target to complete 33 lakh houses in 2016-17. These included houses that were taken up under the Indira AwaasYojana (IAY) and were incomplete on 1st April 2016. Many of them were incomplete for many years. Of these, 21.57 lakh houses have been completed so far. This is nearly double of what was being completed each year in the 2012-13 to 2014-15 period. The Table below shows the year wise completion – Year Number of IAY Houses completed 2012-13 10.80 lakhs 2013-14 10.83 lakhs 2014-15 11.82 lakhs 2015-16 18.03 lakhs 2016-17 (up to 28 January 2017)21.57 lakhs Sincere efforts are being made to complete 33 lakh houses in the current financial year, in partnership with States. In the current financial year, on 20th November, 2016, Hon’ble Prime Minister formally launched Pradhan MantriAwaasYojana (Gramin) – PMAY(G), with an original approval for33 lakhs new PMAY Gramin houses, which has now been increased to 44 lakhs. The targets have been communicated to the States and after following an intensive process of beneficiary selection using SECC ( Socio-Economic Caste Census-2011) and Gram Sabha, housing design typology finalization, finalization of training programme of rural masons and geo tagging of all currently occupied houses to establish that only poor households have been selected, States have started the registration process for construction and over 14.23 lakh beneficiaries have already been registered so far. 16.53 lakh images of current dwellings are uploaded on the AwaasSoftwebsite. The work on all these houses are expected to be started over the next one month, and completion period for these houses has been brought down to only 12 months with efforts to complete more than 50 per cent of houses in six months. Most of these 44 lakh houses are expected to be completed before December, 2017. Altogether one crore and 33 lakh houses will be completed in three years from 2016-17 to 2018-19. Chris Thorburn Authentic Jersey
Govt’s focus on infra to cut down logistics cost: Nitin Gadkari
Government is working on boosting infrastructure, particularly ports, roads and waterways, to significantly reduce logistics cost that is “very high” in the country, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said today. He made a pitch for port-led development which is “crucial” for higher economic growth. “Our logistics cost is very high. It is 18 per cent. It is easy to take any material from Mumbai to Dubai or from Mumbai to London, but it is very difficult to take material from Mumbai to Delhi as it is costly and complicated… We want to give highest priority to that on how we can reduce this cost,” he said. Speaking at the Andhra Pradesh Investors Summit, the road, transport, highways and shipping minister hoped that the target 40 km of road construction per day will be achieved by next year. “It was 2 km per day, last year, it was 18 km per day and by the end of this March, it will be 30 km per day. But our target was 40 km per day, and I am confident that next year, we will complete that target,” he said, adding that the government will complete 2 lakh km National Highway on time. By December-end, he said the ministry has finalised contracts worth USD 80 billion. About ports and shipping, Gadkari said contracts worth Rs 1 lakh crore have been finalised to give a push to the sector. “Most important for our development is port led development… we have Sagarmala as a big investment project. We have already started work on Rs 1 lakh crore,” he disclosed. Last year, the three flagships — Cochin Shipyard, Shipping Corporation of India and Dredging Corporation — recorded profit of Rs 6,000 crore and “for this year, we are expecting profit of about Rs 7,000 crore and we are going to invest this profit”. Essar Ports CEO and MD Rajiv Agarwal agreed, saying infrastructure development is key to growth and the sector needs “cheap finances to develop that”. “What we need is cheap finances… We should need infrastructure as something like defence because it is so important to give quality living to our people and take India to a stage of developed nation,” he said, adding that there should be no roadblocks on land or environment for infrastructure development. Agarwal put the estimate for India to develop infrastructure at trillions of dollars and “we need to remove all the roadblocks to get that money”. Speaking about infrastructure projects in Andhra Pradesh, the road transport minister said Rs 1,665 crore worth of projects have been completed for the Visakhapatnam port and projects worth Rs 2,702 crore are going on. “Within 3 months, we are going to award the projects of Rs 1,200 crore. On this port, we are making investment of Rs 6,000 crore,” Gadkari added. He felt that port-driven development will reduce the cost and this is one of the reasons why the government is giving priority to waterways. On Buckingham Canal near Vijayawada, the minister said: “We will try to take loan in dollars and use that for this canal project, which costs Rs 2,000 crore.” For the Amaravati-Anantpur road project, land acquisition has started and soon, it will start, according to the minister. “Before the end of our five years, we will start the work for Andhra Pradesh worth Rs 1 lakh crore,” he announced. Meanwhile, NHAI and the Department of Roads and Buildings (R&B) inked MoU for construction of 3,000 km of roads, worth Rs 75,000 crore. The second MoU was signed between NHAI and CRDA for 426 km, worth of Rs 23,430 crore. The minister also announced Rs 1,000 crore for Central Road Fund (CRF) in Andhra Pradesh and 30 rail overbridges (ROBs) at a cost of Rs 3,500 crore. Wayne Gretzky Jersey
Budget 2017: Highways sector likely to see only marginal rise in fund allocation
Highway sector’s budgetary allocation for 2017-18 fiscal is likely to be increased only marginally even as the Narendra Modi government has set an ambitious target of building almost 40km of roads per day. Government’s road-construction target was 20 km per day during UPA-II. Sources said the highways ministry is likely to get Rs 58,000 crore, up from Rs 57, 976 crore it got in 2016-17. It had sought Rs 90,000 crore (approximately). The marginal increase means the ministry will have to run a tight ship in the new fiscal, officials said. This comes at a time when the ministry has unveiled an expansion programme of constructing 20,000 kilometres of national highways over the next three years. This includes the Bharat Mala project that envisages developing 6000 km roads along coastal and border areas, Char Dham project connecting four pilgrimage spots including Badrinath and Kedarnath and Sethu Bharatam involving building 350 bridges and rail over bridges in two years. Highways ministry, however, maintains the not-so-generous allocation will not prove a stumbling block for the proposed projects as of now. “The finance ministry has allowed us to raise approximately Rs 59,000 crore from the market. This along with the budgetary allocation will see us through in the new fiscal,” said a ministry official. But ministry officials caution if the present allocation trend continues in the next couple of years, it can hit the highway-expansion programmes. “If the government wants the highways infrastructure to be a catalyst for economic progress, it will have to continue the current level of investment in the next 2-3 years,” said Rohit Kumar Singh, member (finance), National Highways Authority of India. The Modi government, like the previous NDA government under Atal Behari Vajpayee, has given top priority to the sector that had hit a rough patch since 2007. The government realises that road construction is vital for creating jobs and raising incomes, infrastructure experts said. According to credit rating and research firm Crisil, the construction sector was the most labour-dependent among all non-agricultural sectors, requiring more than 12 people to produce R10 lakh of real output. Infrastructure experts admit the sector has probably got one of the biggest boosts since 1998 when the then NDA government launched the National Highways Development Project, the largest government initiative to date to expand and upgrade the capacity of the India’s shambolic highway network. Between 2014-15 and 2016-17, the overall allocation to the highways sector has increased by 73 % — from Rs 1.3 lakh crore to Rs 2.25 lakh crore. “The one sector that will outperform is highways. The progress in the last two-and-a-half years is laudable. But the ministry has to be careful otherwise it might get affected by the ‘high expectation’ syndrome. Apart from a quantum jump in terms of project allocation, the quality too needs to improve,” said Vinayak Chatterjee, chairman of infrastructure consulting firm Feedback Ventures. Chatterjee says the ground conditions are right for a higher allocation. But he concedes there are tough challenges that the government will have to address if the current pace of development has to continue. “These range from land acquisition issues, stressed balance sheet of highway developers and banks, laden with NPAs, that are reluctant to lend,” he said. In the last two years, the government has taken a slew of policy initiatives to raise revenue and lure back the private sector to invest in highways sector. With the appetite for PPP (public private partnership) projects going down, the highways ministry decided to first move to the EPC (engineering procurement contract) model where the government funds the entire project. It also introduced a new model called “hybrid annuity” where the government gives 40 % of the construction cost while the developer invests the remaining 60 %. The new model will not result in reduced equity investments by developers, but will also reduce initial capital outflow for NHAI. Besides, the government also finalised the blueprint to auction completed public funded road projects to domestic and international players for operation and maintenance for a 15-20 year period. Mark Streit Jersey
GPS to be mandatory for all commercial vehicles by year-end
Installation of the global positioning system (GPS) will be made mandatory for all commercial transport vehicles in the State by this year-end to bring in transparency. All commercial vehicles, including autorickshaws, cars, trucks and buses, have to install GPS in line with the Centre and the Supreme Court’s direction, official sources in the Transport Department told The Hindu. Those violating the rule will not be given permission to use the vehicle for commercial purposes or transportation, an official said. Owners have to install GPS devices at their own cost, which runs into a few thousand rupees, depending on the manufacturer. Delhi Integrated Multi-modal Transit System (DIMTS), a firm, which has bagged the contract for installing GPS in commercial vehicles in Delhi, has submitted a detailed proposal for adoption of devices in Karnataka. The company, which bags the bidding, would be permitted to monitor the functioning of GPS in vehicles, the official said. Fitting public transport vehicles with GPS devices was one of the measures that the Delhi government planned after the gang-rape case four years ago. Sources said the GPS devices have been installed in 6,400 Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation and around 2,000 Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation buses. There are around 1.6 crore vehicles on the road in the State, of which 16 lakh are transport vehicles. Another 1.44 crore vehicles are non-transport, of which 1.15 crore are two-wheelers. Adoption of devices would help the Transport Department to keep a tab on mineral-laden trucks and crack down on illegal transportation of minerals. Such devices help track trucks from the time of loading to unloading and also crack down on stolen vehicles, the official said. Currently, most logistics and courier service enterprises have installed these devices to track their vehicles. But a large number of commercial vehicles in the private sector have not adopted GPS devices. Installation of GPS provides details about the vehicle, including the distance covered and so on. How it works The GPS devices will receive satellite signals triangulating data such as location, speed, travel history, and driving patterns. This data can be collected by the vehicle owner as well as by a monitoring agency like the Transport Department. A control room will be set up to monitor movements of transport vehicles across the State. As GPS devices are passive receivers of satellite signals, they cannot be disabled easily. However, tracking is dependent on the position of satellites, surroundings and the weather as a minimum of four satellites are needed for accurate noting of location. Ryan McDonagh USA Authentic Jersey
Highway projects on an overdrive as NHAI raises Rs8,500 crore from LIC
After months of negotiations, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has finally managed to raise Rs8,500 crore from Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) for a period of 30 years at an interest rate of 7.22% per annum. A senior NHAI official confirmed the move. “The sum is a part of the market borrowings permitted by ministry of finance for the current financial year and the deal was closed on Tuesday,” the offical said. He added that to finance various highway projects, NHAI had to raise Rs 55,000 crore in the current financial year. The official said the NHAI bonds being offered to LIC are the highest-rated paper backed by sovereign guarantees with a yield of 70-80 basis points higher than government securities. One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point. Out of this, Rs10,000 crore through EPFO and Rs8,500 crore from LIC has been raised. The remaining Rs5,000 crore each through masala bonds and Rs16,500 crore from the market is still under process. As per data available, NHAI has already managed to raise additional Rs11,929 crore through investors availing capital gains exemption (outstanding as on 31 October 2016). The huge sum is required as highways minister Nitin Gadkari has decided to more than double the rate at which national highways are being built—from 16km a day to 41km a day in the financial year 2016-17. This is around 2.5 times the current rate of construction. The road minister had decided to award 25,000km of national highways in FY17 compared with 10,000km in the last finical year, and raised the construction target to 15,000km as against the 6,000km constructed last year. Out of this 25,000km highway award, 15,000km are under the NHAI. Similarly, NHAI’s target for construction has been fixed at 8,000km for the current financial year. Curtis Samuel Jersey
Rural Roads Target well within reach- Ministry of Rural Development
Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), a flagship scheme of the Ministry of Rural Development will achieve the annual targeted length of 48,812 kilometers of rural roads by 31st March, 2017, as the construction work picks up from January to May every year. As on 27.01.2017, a total of 32,963kms. has been completed which is 67.53% of the annual target. This translates to 111 kms. of roads getting constructed every day. According to the annual target (48,812 kms.), the average per day construction should be 133kms per day. It is important to realize that September to December are lean months for road construction, whereas the construction picks up from January to May every year. It is also important to underline that from April to August, 2016 PMGSY had achieved an average per day construction of 139 kms. per day and therefore by 31st March, 2017 it will achieve the annual targeted length of 48,812 kms. The annual target of habitations in 2016-17 is 15,000 habitations, against which, as on date (27.01.2017) 6,473 habitations have been connected. PMGSY would also by 31st March, 2017, achieve the habitation target also. Another major achievement has been the focus of using “green” technologies and non-conventional materials (waste plastic, cold mix, geo-textiles, fly ash, copper and iron slag etc.) in construction of PMGSY roads because these are locally available, low cost, non-polluting, labour friendly and fast construction technologies / materials. In the first 14 years of PMGSY (from 2000 to 2014), only 806.93 kms. of roads were constructed using these technologies / materials. In the last 2 years (2014-2016), 2,634.02 kms. of PMGSY roads have been constructed using these technologies /materials. In the present year (2016-17) till date (27.01.2017), 3,000 kms. have been constructed using these technologies / materials. Greg Zuerlein Jersey
Germany to finance strategic infrastructure projects in India
Germany is set to finance long-term strategic projects in India particularly in the railway, infrastructure and smart cities sectors as part of efforts to support India’s “growth story”, a top German official has said. “Germany is ready to support India’s growth story and become part of India’s DNA in key long term strategic projects for India’s growth,” Matthias Machnig, State Secretary, Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy, was quoted as saying by an Indian Embassy statement. During a meeting with visiting Indian CEOs delegation led by CII, he also informed about the German Cabinet’s decision to finance long-term strategic projects in countries like India particularly in railways, infrastructure and smart cities sectors, the statement said. German government has set up a special unit in the Economics Ministry to implement this decision of the German Cabinet, it said. In a meeting with the CII delegation, German Federal Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble said that Germany is committed to working with India for mutual benefit. The CII delegation was led by Shobana Kameneni, CII President-Designate and Vice Chairperson Apollo Hospitals Ltd. This was the largest CII delegation to visit Germany since India’s Participation in the 2015 Hannover Messe where India was a partner country. The 10 members of delegation also included Salil Singhal (PI Industries Ltd), Rajiv Modi (Cadila), Sanjay Kapur (Sona Koyo Steering Systems), Prabhakar Atla (Cyient Ltc), Mohan Murti (Reliance Industries), Mukul Dhyani (Wipro) and Rajesh Menon from CII. They also participated in a roundtable meeting with German CEOs led by Federation of German Industry (BDI) President Dieter Kempf. It was organised by BDI and the Indian Embassy. CII and BDI would be jointly working on a programme, to intensify their engagements in key areas including skill development, the statement said. The Indian delegation also interacted with a number of German industry leaders from German Asia-Pacific Business Association. The CII and The Economic Council also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to strengthen economic and trade ties between India and Germany during ‘The Germany-India Economic Dialogue’ event held at the Indian Embassy here yesterday. The MoU will help in jointly promoting Indo-German business by means of frequent exchange visits for business cooperation, facilitating investment and business development, and jointly organising road shows in both countries for promotion of investment opportunities, the statement said. Paul Martin Authentic Jersey
Infrastructure sector seeks higher allocation, tax breaks
The infrastructure sector’s stakeholders expect a rise in budgetary allocation for 2017-18 and tax breaks to reinvigorate the industry. “Over the last few years, the government has been trying to address the impediments to the infrastructure growth story. However, investment in the sector is yet to reach the desired level,” Vishwas Udgirkar, Partner, Consulting, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India, told IANS. “Budgetary allocations are expected to increase and with bank capitalisation taking place due to demonetisation, it would be interesting to see if any announcements are made to facilitate channelising this much needed capital to the sector.” According to Manish Agarwal, Partner Leader Infrastructure with PwC, public sector spending is expected to remain the prime driver for infrastructure build-out over the next year as private sector investment remains subdued. “Financial stress in the banking system remains a key hurdle to private investment coming back into the sector. Addressing this, along with implementation of Kelkar Committee recommendations, could revive PPPs (public private partnerships) faster,” Agarwal said. On the merger of the Railway Budget with the Union Budget, Agarwal noted that the move will help to bring in more focus on the key issues relevant to the budget. “The Finance Ministry will be able to start taking a view on allocation between rail, road, water to optimise logistics costs, and make transport greener,” Agarwal said. “While road and rail are likely to get large allocations, we expect to see growth in allocation to inland waterways and Sagarmala programes.” The provisions for attracting global funds such as pension funds and sovereign wealth funds would go a long way in facilitating infrastructure development, said Jaijit Bhattacharya, Partner, Strategy and Economics, KPMG in India. “Along with an increase in budgetary allocation for the infrastructure sector, it is crucial to establish regulatory mechanisms in infrastructure creation, which enables private investment in infrastructure funds such as National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF),” he said. “In addition, a more aggressive adoption of asset recycling is desirable as it would free up a very significant amount of funds which can be further invested into more infrastructure. “This would unleash a virtuous cycle and considerably accelerate infrastructure development. In the road sector, this strategy is termed as TOT (Toll-Operate-Transfer) and is being actively embraced.” Besides higher allocation, the sector is hopeful of tax sops. The Construction Federation of India (CFI) said it anticipates the Union Budget 2017-18 to bring substantial relief in direct and indirect taxation and also remove anomalies in the taxation laws. Filip Chlapik Jersey