Budget is good but not good enough to live up to the FM's promise of getting rid of "socialist baggage"
The finance minister must be appreciated for resisting the temptation to increase taxes
She also said increased spending and high market borrowings led to a significant widening of the fiscal deficit
The government shows its intent to continue with reforms
There are several welcome standalone reforms but these do not add up to a coherent strategy to achieve a $5 trillion economy
Sitharaman walked into the House several minutes before 11 am and placed the tablet on the podium
What sort of grand policy produces the opposite result of the one that it sought to achieve? What failed and how would this be corrected?
On Monday, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced an allocation of over Rs 4,000 crore over the next five years for the Deep Ocean Mission
With grants, the transfer is roughly 50-50 of divisible tax pool between Centre, states; N K Singh says Commission worked without any bias
Allocation jumps 118% over RE to Rs 2.23 trillion; Rs 35,000 cr earmarked for Covid vaccination
A snapshot of the key numbers released by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Union Budget 2021
The onus was on the government to do the heavy lifting for reviving the investment cycle as a broad-based recovery in private capex is not yet in sight
Small savings, which will chip in a record Rs 4.8 trillion, breathe life into stimulus
In FY21, the gap between revenue and expenditure reached Rs 18.48 trillion in the revised estimate. For FY22, the gap is expected to be Rs 15 trillion
At 15.9%, capex share in total spend for FY22 will be the highest in over a decade
There has been less fudging with the revised estimates (RE) of 2020-21.
The Budget has also laid the road map for overhauling public sector enterprises with the announcement of the broad details of the privatisation policy
The upper limit is capped at Rs 45 lakh for claiming this deduction.
Additionally, the consumer will hopefully have more to spend in the short term, which will push up demand
Long-term investment in infrastructure by Sovereign Wealth Funds and Pension Funds will also receive a boost owing to certain relaxations