Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has presented the Union Budget 2021-22 in Parliament. In significant changes to the taxation process, Sitharaman announced the scrapping of tax for senior citizens under certain conditions, new rules for removal of double taxation for NRIs, and a discount within the period of time of tax assessments among other measures. Startups will get an extension in their tax holiday for a further year.
Sitharaman also announced that the advance liabilities on dividend income shall arise after declaration of payment of dividend. At the conclusion of her speech, Sensex was at 47451.62, up 1165.85 points. In her speech, Sitharaman announced that India’s fiscal deficit is about to leap to 9.5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product in 2020-21 as per Revised Estimates. this is often sharply above 3.5 per cent of GDP that was projected within the Budget Estimates. A slump in government revenues amid the Covid-19 pandemic has led to a pointy rise in deficit and market borrowing. In health care spending, Sitharaman announced a complete spend of around Rs 2 lakh crore on healthcare with Rs 35,000 crore on Covid-19 vaccine development and innoculation.
Sitharaman, in her speech, announced a push to the textile industry, a hike in custom duty on cotton and raw silk, a replacement cess on agriculture development – Rs 2.5 per litre on petrol and Rs 4 per litre on diesel – a central university in Leh, attention on sea-weed farming with a replacement facility in Tamil Nadu and a replacement vehicle scrapping policy that aims to supply the auto sector a lift among other announcements. Sitharaman also announced that a further 1 crore families will now benefit under the Centre’s Ujjwala scheme. Four poll-bound states – Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Assam and West Bengal – will see significant spending on highway road expansion.
Addressing the state after the Budget, Modi said it speaks of “all-round development.” “From Covid-related reforms to Atmanirbhar resolve, we moved ahead with this mantra in Budget 2021. It’s a lively and not a reactive budget,” he added, congratulated the Finance Ministry team. This was Sitharaman’s third budget under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. during a significant departure from the tradition, this year’s Budget wasn’t printed and was only made available during a digital format.
