Budget session begins in parliament

Budget session begins in parliament house on Monday.

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has begun presenting the budget 2021 Infront of the nation. She had earlier promised to present budget like no other. The session has begun in parliament house on Monday.

Finance minister has announced to provide Rs 1.1 lakh crore to Indian railways, stating that she revealed a new plan which will come into play by 2030. The Minister of Finance has spoken of dedicated eastern and western roads which will be operational by June 2022. In her Budget speech, Sitharaman also said a national pipeline would be launched for potential brown infrastructure and pipelines for GaIL (India) Ltd, Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and HPCL would be funded.

In large parts of the tax system, Sitharaman has announced the abolition of income tax for the elderly under certain circumstances, new tax exemptions for NRIs, and a reduction in tax testing among other measures. Start-ups will be extended on their tax vacation for an additional year. Sitharaman also announced that the prepaid tax debt will be made available after the announcement of payment of the share.

In the case of health care spending, Sitharaman has announced the use of about Rs 2 lakh crore in health care for Rs 35,000 crore in developing Covid-19 vaccine and inoculation. Sitharaman, in her address, announced the advancement of the textile industry, a central university in Leh, with a focus on seawater cultivation with a new facility in Tamil Nadu and a new vehicle elimination policy aimed at empowering the automotive sector among other announcements. Sitharaman also announced that 1 crore families will now benefit from the Centre’s Ujjwala program. Four countries arrested in the polls will see spending on their highways.

In her speech, Sitharaman announced that India's deficit is expected to drop to 9.5 percent of Global Productivity by 2020-21 according to Revised Estimates. This is much higher than the 3.5 percent of GDP that was considered in the Budget Estimates. Declining government revenue during the Covid-19 epidemic has led to a sharp increase in shortfall and market borrowing. After an agreement estimated at 7.7 per cent in 2020-21, the Ministry of Economic Research’s projects that India’s real GDP will record 11 per cent growth by 2021-22. Automatic GDP growth is estimated at 15.4 percent, which includes a 4.4 percent inflation target during the year.