new delhi the past two years have obviously been difficult for much of the economy the onset of the second wave of the pandemic and looming threat of omicron has affected the alreadystruggling indias journey to prosperity with the slowdown that the economy had suffered the countrys growth rate had decelerated from 83 in 201617 to 4 in 201920with this background when finance minister nirmala sitharaman stepped up on the podium to table the union budget for 202223 it was the second budget amid the fear of covid19 even the economic survey report presented in parliament a day before the budget noted the challenges from the new variants of covid19 and the uncertainties in the global economy advt and that is why perhaps the runup to the budget has been less noisy within the auto industry this year than usual however that doesnt mean the sector had no expectations and demands from the finance ministerit is no secret that the indian auto industry has faced a significant slowdown because of covid19 global semiconductor shortage and unbridled commodity price increases both the oems and the component suppliers were hoping to get some direct fiscal and policy support in this years budget to battle the odds for resilience and survival electric vehicle segment was expected to be the focus area providing an impetus for investments was also much needed huge bets were also being placed upon taxation and infrastructure development among many others that will help the industry embark on a longterm growth path while the finance ministers budget speech on february 1 2021 outlined several new provisions and increased investments to get the auto industry back on track some significant opportunities were also missed moreover the auto industry did not find any direct mention in union budget 2022 which dismayed most of the stakeholdersin this reading list we take a closer look at some major takeaways of the budget which had a fair number of hits and missesthe hitsenhanced allocation of capex high target for national highways the proposal of an ev battery policy tax incentives for startups support for msmes emphasis on rural economy and boost to local parts manufacturing and are some of the major hits of the union budget 2022 from the automotive industry perspective advt enhanced allocation of capexan increase in capex expenditure and focus on infrastructure across the board is a big positive the government has announced a sharp jump of 354 in capex outlay to inr 75 lakh crore next year as against inr 554 lakh crore in the current year this move will provide the muchneeded impetus for the commercial vehicle sector especially the mhcv segment which has witnessed sharp demand contraction over the past two yearshigh target for national highwaysexpansion of national highways by 25000 km under the governments gati shakti programme that encompasses thrust on seven different engines of growth including roads railways and multimodal logistics infrastructure augurs well for the demand for commercial vehicles especially tipper trucks construction sector and tyre