Budget 2022: FM pumps additional allocation into Har Ghar, Nal Se Jal Scheme

The shares of plastic pipe manufacturers namely, Astral, Finolex Industries, and Supreme Industries are trading in the green territory with decent gains.

The government’s Har Ghar, Nal se Jal scheme, a component of the Jal Jivan Mission, promises to provide piped drinking water to every household in the country by 2024. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in her Budget speech that the current coverage of Har Ghar, Nal Se Jal is 8.7 crore households. Of this, 5.5 crore households were provided tap water in the last two years itself. An allocation of Rs 60,000 crore has been made with an aim to cover 3.8 crore households in 2022-23.     

This marks a healthy growth in government investments towards Water Supply & Sanitation (WSS) and plumbing segments through Har Ghar, Nal Se Jal initiative. These two are the second-largest segments for plastic pipes, accounting for a 35-40 per cent share of the plastic pipe market. In the past five fiscal years i.e. from FY14 to FY19, the government expenditure on the sector rose at 22 per cent CAGR to about Rs 62,400 crore in FY19. This was led by several central government schemes over the last three years, coupled with rising emphasis by municipal authorities.     

The plastic pipe sector has shown resilience by recovering from the pandemic-induced slowdown in the first two-quarters of FY21. In the second half of FY 2020-21, plastic pipes & fittings witnessed a sharp recovery in their volumes, mainly on the back of a sustained rise in demand.    

The shares of plastic pipe manufacturers namely, Astral, Finolex Industries, and Supreme Industries are trading in the green territory with decent gains.