Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget 2021-22 at 11 am in the Parliament with a speech. Earlier, the Fin Min had arrived at the Ministry of Finance at the North Block and was seen holding a tablet. While PM Narendra Modi has arrived at the Parliament for the budget presentation. This year, the budget holds significance given the Coronavirus pandemic that left people troubled for over a year. However, they would expect a boost with a new tax regime.
Meanwhile, the GST collections for the month of January 2021 has touched Rs 1.20 lakh crore. “The Gross Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue collected in the month of January 2021 till 6 PM on January 31 is Rs 1,19,847 crores,” the Finance Ministry said, adding that it is eight times higher than the revenues collected in the same month last year.
As Speaker Om Birla and the Cabinet approved the Union Finance Minister to present her budget, Nirmala Sitharaman began her speech by saying that the budget preparation was held in an environment like never before. She said that Coronavirus slowed down the progress of the economy and that the lockdown was implemented at the right time. As the Budget this time is being held paperless, all MPs will be distributed with the digital copies. Till date, a 30-lakh crore plan had been announced to tackle the pandemic which was similar to 5 mini budgets. She said that a vision for Atmanirbhar Bharat has been proposed with the FY22 budget proposals based on six pillars –
- Health and wellbeing,
- Infrastructure,
- Inclusive development,
- Development of human capital,
- Research and development,
- Minimum Government and
- Maximum Governance.
Budget Highlights:
- Vehicles to undergo fitness tests after 20 years for Personal Vehicles, 15 years for Commercial Vehicles, besides a voluntary vehicle scrapping policy has also been announced.
- A Development Finance Institution (DFI) will be set up by the Government which will be capitalised with Rs 20,000 crore.
- A whopping sum of Rs 1.41 lakh crore has been released towards Urban Clean India Mission.
- A new health infra scheme with a higher outlay of Rs 61,000 crore has been announced for the next six years.
- The FM announced a National Monetisation Pipeline for brownfield projects to be launched. NHAI and PGCIL have sponsored one Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvIT) each.
- A national railway plan by 2030 for Indian Railways has been prepared in order to lower logistics expenditure.
- “In 2020-21, we have provided for ₹4.12 lakh crore for capital expenditure. We are likely to end at ₹4.39 lakh crore towards it. We will provide ₹5.54 lakh crore towards Capital Expenditure in FY22 – 34% more than the budget estimates of last year,” the Finance Minister said.
- A whopping sum of Rs 1,10,055 crore has been announced as FY22 allocation for Indian Railways.
- The Ujjwala scheme will be extended to cover an additional 1 crore beneficiaries.
- Seven mega-investment textile parks will be set up to generate more jobs.
- 1,10,000 crores for National Highways Authority of India for the development of roads and highways.
- From now on, the Government will allow one-person companies.
- A proposal to revise definition under Companies Act, 2013 for small companies by increasing their threshold for capitalization to not exceeding Rs 50 lakh to not exceeding Rs 2 crore and turnover not exceeding Rs 2 crore to not exceeding Rs 20 crore.
- Govt allows Rs 20,000 crore towards bank recapitalisation.
- The Government mulls making changes to the Insurance Act to allow higher FDI from the existing 49% to 74%.
- FM Nirmala Sitharaman says that Agriculture Credit target could be increased to Rs16.5 lakh crore.
- “The MSP regime has undergone a change to assure price that is at least 1.5 times the cost of production across all commodities. The total amount paid to paddy farmers surged to Rs 1.72 lakh crore in 2020-21,” the Finance Minister said.
- Government is also considering privatisation of two PSU Banks and a General Insurance company in the FY2022.
- Divestment of BPCL, Pawan Hans, CONCOR and Air India would be completed by FY2022, with the target set at Rs 1.75 lakh crore.
- A part of the government’s holding in Life Insurance Corporation will be sold through Initial Public Offering (IPO) in FY2022.
- A sum of Rs 35,000 crore has been provided towards Coronavirus vaccines for 2021-2022. With the total budget outlay for health and well-being at Rs. 2,23,846 crores, which is a 137% hike.
- MSME allocation has been doubled with a sum of Rs15,700 crore announced for FY2022.
- Rs1500 crore has been set aside to encourage the digital mode of payment among citizens.
- Rs300 crore to Government of Goa for the celebration of Goa’s liberation from Portuguese rule.
- A total sum of Rs 1,18,452 crore has been announced as revenue deficit grant to 17 states in 2021-22.
- Government to provide social security benefits for small workers with ESIC and minimum wages, these include Ola, Uber, Swiggy, Zomato and contract workers in the IT and software industry.
- A 1000 crore has been set aside for Bengal and Assam Tea workers. It also covers a special scheme for women health and child welfare in those states.
- India’s first digital census will also be taken up at an estimated expenditure of Rs 3,768 crore.
- First unmanned satellite mission in December 2021.
- One Nation One Ration scheme launched and beneficiaries can claim their ration pan India, this would be beneficial, especially for migrant workers across 32 states and UTs.
- FM proposes tax exemption for aircraft leasing cos; tax exemption for notified affordable housing for migrant workers.
- Rs 1.5 lakh deduction on payment of interest for affordable housing extended by 1 yr.
- Govt proposes setting up of a conciliatory mechanism for quick resolution of contractual disputes.
- A National Nursing and Midwifery Commission Bill has been proposed.
- Plans are also being made to chalk out a National Language Translation initiative.
- A proposal has also been put forward for deep ocean mission with an outlay of more than Rs 4,000 crore over five years.