Late president Kalam in his vision document, India 2020, envisioned India as a created nation of 1.2 billion. Whenever history is written, FM Sitharaman has ensured, February 1 will get a star-studded recognition. Indeed, the economy expected a huge course correction, and the fiscal deficit point of view was to be viewed liberally. The FM has produced complete use of the chance.
It is exceptional for the FM to set adequate legroom for boosting development devoid of rising the tax incidence. Another recognised mode of boosting government income is monetisation of non-core assets, owned by the government and PSEs that majorly consist of surplus land, either by way of direct sale or concession or by related implies. This shall largely enable resource mobilisation.
The concentrate on thrusting employment generation was conspicuous regarding essential emerging sectors like Mega Investment Textiles Parks (MITRA), augmentation of public bus transport services by means of the PPP model, and so forth.
Decoding Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Union Budget 2021
One of the criticisms of previous Budgets, is not only that outlays for agriculture have remained conservative but, more importantly, the expenditure has gone to unproductive avenues–interests and subsidies rather than capital investment. Under Pillar 3 which covered ‘Inclusive Development for Aspirational India’, a host of measures and enhanced government expenditure announced contain rising agricultural credit to farmers enhanced allocation to Rural Infrastructure Development Fund and doubling the Micro Irrigation Fund.
Further, the scope of ‘Operation Green Scheme’, presently applicable to tomatoes, onions, and potatoes, has been enlarged to contain 22 perishable goods. The customs duty on cotton has been raised from nil to 10% and on raw silk and silk yarn from 10% to 15%. Also, a new ‘agriculture infrastructure & development cess’ on specific products, earmarked cess for enhancing agricultural infrastructure, has been announced. Being sensitive in nature, the agricultural reforms shall hopefully provide some relief to the famers’ present issues. On wellness and well-being, the FM rightly recognised that there is area for public investment to establish a initially-price major wellness care method. There is a stupendous outlay of `2,23,846 crores, a historic raise of 137%. Such costs shall cover currently initiatives—Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, National Digital Health, Ayushman Bharat and Mission COVID Suraksha.
The adverse scenario of migrants and the unorganised sectors triggered by the pandemic will be addressed by nationwide implementation of One Nation One Ration Card. Moreover, a portal is getting launched that will gather relevant info on gig, creating, and building workers, amongst other people.
Measures towards upgrading infrastructure and technologies for efficiency and lowering economic losses has come as a relief to energy discoms that have been suffering from income loss due to theft, poor transmission infrastructure, and so forth. The need to have for advertising competitors to allow a higher decision to customers to do away with the monopoly of discoms is on the horizon. Continuing with the guarantee of Aspirational India, the spending budget has allocated a generous quantity for National Research Foundation and assistance for space investigation and missions. A Deep Ocean mission shall assure that India rubs shoulders with western counterparts.
A new customs duty framework for addressing Atmanirbhar Bharat has been announced (effective from October 1) immediately after reviewing exemption notifications. Rationalisation of tariffs was announced on numerous products—mobile phone components, gold and silver, and so forth. A roadmap for assessment of 400 odd exemptions this year by means of comprehensive consultation has also been announced.
While the dream 1991 spending budget was development-oriented, it was broadly criticised for not addressing the simple challenges, particularly in employment, agriculture, and wellness sectors. Expectations for meeting the checklist for a historic spending budget have been adequately met by balancing macro-financial reforms and equally crucial public policy locations of agriculture and healthcare.
Mukesh Butani, Managing companion, BMR Legal Advocates Assistance from Divyasha Mathur