Sitharaman told reporters that the PM’s message was clear: “no additional tax” during the pandemic. If Budget’s content was an intended booster shot, his focus was unmistakably digital, with the use of technology to ensure quick and targeted delivery through his speech as an ongoing theme. It also marked a bold move in ‘sunrise’ areas: green technology, AI, semi-conductors and drones.
Presenting his fourth budget, the Finance Minister adopted a ‘whole-government approach’ of infrastructure projects by expanding the momentum beyond the Center to the states. Gatishakti, which brings together schemes and projects related to seven key sectors on a common platform, has been positioned as a major initiative to ensure better delivery of infrastructure with huge allocations for telecom, highways and railways. has gone.
Welfare measures were not given with priority on improving infrastructure and quality of life in rural areas. But, relatively speaking, they seem to have focused on infra capex.
The FM said she was laying the foundation for the “Amrit Kaal”, a period of 25 years over a 100-year period in India, and that the budget was futuristic and inclusive.
Budget addresses contemporary challenges
The budget prompts an awareness of contemporary challenges: emerging climate threats, procedural constraints that continue to thwart the ambition to capitalize on post-pandemic concern to diversify global supply chains, and the need for education by starting a digital university. The infrastructure needs to be upgraded. foreign university.
Given the pressures of the pandemic, it could not be more timely to recognize mental health as a public challenge. The bulk of the higher spending has been earmarked for physical infrastructure and logistics – among other things 25,000 km of new highways are promised in the coming year, 100 new multi-modal cargo terminals in the next three years and 400 new Vande Bharat Trains network addition to 5G and upgrade of airports and seaports. River-linking is to begin with the Ken-Betwa project being implemented at a cost of less than Rs 45,000 crore and detailed project reports for five more links have been finalised.
Another proposition of interest to the middle class would be the complete integration of post offices into core banking. With this all banking facilities like ATM, internet banking, online transfer in other banks will also be available for post office accounts.
By 2047, by which time, more than half of India is expected to be urban, Sitharaman called for a “paradigm change” in urban planning and announced the setting up of a high-level expert panel to make suggestions. The various steps being envisaged are largely focused on connecting urban transport corridors with railway networks and promoting urban public transport based on clean technologies. The budget green includes a proposal for sovereign bonds as a means of funding eco-friendly infrastructure projects in addition to a new battery-swapping policy that seeks to boost the electric vehicle sector.
Small and medium-sized businesses were given an extension of the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS), launched to help them tide over the crisis triggered by the pandemic, till March next year. There was consistency in policies as well. The Atmanirbhar push was particularly evident in the defense sector in which 68% of the capital procurement budget in the coming year will be earmarked for domestic firms, up from 58% in the current year. The urge to boost domestic manufacturing led the finance minister to increase customs duty on items such as headphones and speakers as well as wearables such as smart meters.
High-tech services like ‘Kisan Drones’ for crop estimation and pesticide spraying for the farmer were promised. The FM announced that chemical free natural farming will be promoted along a five kilometer wide corridor along the banks of the Ganges. Despite the increase in allocation, the FM chose to be conservative in favor of receipts, budgeting for a modest 9.6% increase in taxes, recovery of growth and an easy choice given the stagnant GST numbers. Vivek probably had to do with lower dividend and disinvestment collections next year.
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