The complete budget for this year has come as you all may remember the one that came in February was an Interim only . In this Budget , there have not been some extraordinary surprises ; neither there have been too appreciable decisions nor too depressing one . The budgets after Elections are much like this only . but this somewhere lacks the Intent of recovering our Economy from turmoil .

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman (The first ever full time women finance minister) gave her first Budget speech . She grabbed eyeballs as soon as she carried Budget in a Maroon monogram “BAHI-KHATA” in contrast to traditional use of Briefcase which was prevalant right from 1947 (Used by RK SHANMUKHAM the first finance minister of India) . It was really an amazing move of coming over the Western culture . Her speech was Good enough to keep the momentum generated quite up . She didn’t even drank a single sip of water and gave the speech without a Pause . What made the speech even more attractive was the use of Verses and references from ancient texts , philosophers , poets from different languages . Tamil quotes also impressed DMK Members . She gave the focus on REFORM , PERFORM and TRANSFORM .

Here I have pointed some main highlights and bullet points of this Budget regarding various sectors :

TAX :

• There have been a talk going on called INHERITANCE TAX to wip the Creamy Layer . But not going that far Government decided to increase Levy on rich taxpayers . Though the tax slab of middle class has nit even been touched . Those having income of 2-5 crore while those having income above 5 crore will have to pay a Whopping 43% . Tax slabs haven’t been changed but Surcharge have been imposed . Notable point is that the rate is even higher than US . The step is very appreciable no doubt but also government has to be ready to cripple down Tax-evasions which will increase quite highly after this . Also some Experts say that it will make our Economy uncompetitive as it will reduce the propensity to earn and invest more .
• Corporate Tax of 25% is now on the companies having annual turnover of 400 crore as previously of 250 crore . There was a long criticism going that Tax Rejig should be same for all . It’s a big relief for the companies .
• A major disappointment for salaried common man was absence of TDS and Standard Deduction . Interim finance minister PIYUSH GOYAL promised it in the Interim Budget .
• There is a LTCG Tax on Equities which is a big enemy of Investors . Expectations were that it could be wiped out but nothing as sort of happened .
• A new move is High Spenders (Transactions like 2 or 5 lakh or deposition of 1 crore in your current account) will have to mandatory file their income tax returns even if their taxable income is below threshold exemption of 5 lakh .

• Now AADHAR and PAN are interchangeable or mostly the former can be used wherever the latter is required . The Pain of Pan is reduced .
• One nation one card : RuPay card will be made helpful for bus travel , toll taxes , retail shopping , withdrawl and parking charges . The step is aimed to bring convenience for public by having only one card for various uses .

• WOMEN EMPOWERMENT : Finance Minister gave the slogan NARI TU NARAYANI calling it the tradition of our country and development can’t take place without the inclusion of Women . On this behalf she proposed various helpful measures for SELF HELP GROUPS (SHG’s) like overdraft of 5000 , loan upto 1 lakh for one women/SHG under MIDRA scheme of which 70% beneficiaries are Women only .

AGRICULTURE :

• Government is still stable on it’s promise of doubling Farmer’s income by 2022 (God knows how) although allocation in this sector has been increased highly .
• FM also gave the idea of ZERO BUDGET FARMING which will help in achieving this target . It’s called ZERO BUDGET as instead of pesticides and fertilizers ; Cow dung , Cow urine , pulse flour and jaggery . The income earned from intercrop outsets the cost of raising the main crop , hence Zero Budget .

EDUCATION :

• Allocation in this sector is increased but it’s still lower than 6% as it should be . Other than that 400 crore has been allocated towards creating WORLD CLASS INSTITUTIONS (But as far as I remember promise was 1000 crore for one such university , so the Maths is not fitting in place I guess) .
• Another scheme announced was the STUDY IN INDIA Scheme to attract foreign students to study in India . But is this scheme really required and are we even capable of it . Who will want to study in a country which has the most Educated Unemployed Youth ; nor is our standard of study is very high . Also , in My Opinion why to waste money on foreign students instead use them in our students by adding more vocational and job oriented courses .
• HEALTH and EDUCATION on overall remained big losers in this budget . Another dissapoitment was ENVIRONMENT which is in Turmoil was not even once mentioned in the whole Budget .

• Garbage collection arrangement in each village . Target is to make the whole country free of open defecation by October 2019 . Other rural development schemes have also been promoted .
• A nominal cut was seen in Sanitation and Drinking water sector where instead of increasing the allocation it was reduced (though fall was marginal) .

ECONOMY :

• A Big declaration came that government will even borrow from abroad to reduce dependence on domestic borrowing ; though it’s a bold step but it has exposed our finances to currency risk .
• There was no effort to augment savings without which investment can’t be increased and without which 8% growth can’t be achieved .
• Fiscal Deficit target has been revised at 3.3% . Other sectors being alright the government expects huge increase in revenue from PSU Sale and Dividend .
• Also the deadline has been set for the sale of AIR INDIA’s sale by end of this Fiscal . The target can be met realistically but Economic stress seems Inevitable here .
• A serious issue was the transfer of RBI Reserves is used to balance out the books here . Due to this only URJIT PATEL resigned as didn’t wanted government to RAID into the RBI Vault . Also why do they need to get into RBI Vault when government claims that tax collection has increased after Demonetisation and GST .

SCHEMES :

• AYUSHMAN BHARAT scheme was the biggest beneficiary but almost all other schemes including MGNREGA saw a cut in their Allocation .
• GANGA CLEANING : It seems even government has Quit on this purpose . As a huge surprise it’s allocation was reduced cut thus year from 2250 crore last year to only 750 this year though whole money was not used last year but still amount is meagre keeping in mind that the target is being revised ahead again and again .
• 24×7 Electricity and Water the promise of 2014 budget has been brought in again now 2024 as the new target .
• IDEAS (INDIAN DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE SCHEME) was announced which will provide concesional financing to development projects in immediate neighbourhood . It’ also being seen as an answer to China’s BRI .
• PRADHAN MANTRI SHRAM YOGI MAANDHAN YOJANA to give 3000/month pensions to informal sector workers after they turn 60

• DEFENCE BUDGET : It is kept at 3.18 lakh crore at almost as same as Interim Budget .The increase is only around 7% , so no big bang modernization is expected for armed forces . At a time of ongoing border tensions this Budget seems to be a big dampener for both the forces and country .

STARTUPS :

• ANGEL Tax has finally received the relief it was long asking for . Assessment will be not done on every fund arranged by Startups who file requisite declaration , provide information in return and passes the e-Verification Test .
• Focus can be clearly seen on encouragement of Startups . A new TV Channel will be launched that will serve a medium between Start-ups and Venture Capitalists . It will be a very interesting and innovative decision if implemented properly . In My Opinion it’s the best thing in the Budget .

• RAILWAY BUDGET : No major declaration has come as focus is on improvements in quality of railway . Private trains will be brought to increase efficiency and punctuality .

• Electric vehicles were given most concessions starting from income tax break to lower import duties on components and even just 5% GST Slab has been provided . It seems Government aims at encouraging e-Vehicles thinking for environment.

• A very brilliant move to increase Cashless transactions is that now ; MERCHANT DISCOUNT RATE (MDR) will not be charged from businesses of turnover of 50000 crore and RBI and banks will absorb the cost .

• Introduction of TDS on cash withdrawals over 2 crore will help government in following cash movements and encourage Digitisation .

• Home loans have been made cheaper by around 1.5 lakhs (that costing upto 45 lakh) to increase Housing in country . It has been a Boost for common people looking for Houses .

• RENTAL LAWS will be reformed as current ones don’t address the relationship between tenants and landlords

• A strange move was that custom duties were raised on Newspaper PAPER which will increase the pressure on Industry as already the cost of newspaper is twice than what it’s sold at and requirement is not fulfilled by domestic output so Import is necessary . So this move just seems aimlessly tarnishing Newspapers .

• Custom duties were raised on almost all consumer goods to be imported making them dearer . Even Books ; I genuinely think books could have been left of .

• Petrol and Diesel became costlier by about 2.50 and 2.30 rupees respectively mainly because government increased Cess on it . So we can conclude the low prices were just for the Elections . An argument was that government wants to promote e-Vehicles as I said in the above point but another counter argument is ; however efficient may be the e-Vehicles but still it will cost a minimum of 20-25 lakh well above Common Man’s reach so there is no point raising prices of petrol and diesel at this point of time .

• Social and voluntary organisations also received appreciable concessions .

• Faceless electronic income tax assessment will be brought to root out Corruption .

• Plans were announced to tap overseas money with an aim of more FDI’s (Foreign direct investment) and FII’s (Foreign Institutional investments)

• Gold and Silver will get Costlier as import duty has been raised on them . On gold the custom duty now stands at 12.5% . Fear of Smuggling has also come up as all the metals have become Expensive .

NRIs :

• A move I liked very much was NRIs didn’t needed to pay tax on gifts received from Indian relatives but now any gift received till now but from 5 June 2019 will have to pay Tax on it .
• Another decision on NRIs is they will receive the AADHAR as soon as they arrive in India ; at present they have to wait for 180 days .
• Another move was to merge the NRI-Portfolio Investment Scheme Route with the Foreign Portfolio Investment Route to give NRI’s a better and easier accsess to Indian equities .
• Government is also planning to make India the most favourite FDI Destination . Single brand and Media will see foreign investment while 100% FDI is allowed for Insurance companies
• There were a few announcements like 100 lakh crore investment for Infrastructure and 50 lakh crore in Railways . But no specifications were made on it how they will arranged , just big numbers to impress us .

Market seemed quite Unimpressed and swung wildly with Sensex losing 395 points and almost all indices showing a big fall followed in next few days . The reason seems Obvious increase in public shareholding (from 25 to 35 lakh requiring 4 lakh crore and also another reason seems the increase of Tax for highest income slab people . But the RUPEE seemed very Happy from the budget specially the decision to borrow from abroad and rupee gained 8 paise closing at 68.42 .

Mostly this Budget talks about Targets and not much big bang reforms are announced . The budget is in total of 27.86 lakh crore just 2000 crore more than Interim Budget . GST collections have been reduced by 1 lakh crore and the make up is done through non tax revenue , disinvestment , higher excise and customs , etc . The gross growth rate is estimated at 12 % ; Inflation estimate is around 4% and our growth rate is estimated at 7 % (despite how much government shouts 8% growth) . So from where the remaining 1% will come (Again Maths is not fitting in) .

From an Economist’s point of view if we look at the budget it’ a very Dull kind of budget and is not growth oriented . Instead of being a full budget it was more of a supplementary to the Interim budget . There was no boost towards accelerating GDP growth to reach target of 8% . Damage was already done by KISAN scheme (freely giving 6000 to farmers) and other Appeasement schemes) and PENSION schemes for Shopkeepers (will cost government upto 3 crore) . In the name of development 5 Trillion economy was shouted 5 times but No Roadmap was given how that will be reached .

Another disappointment was in the 137 minute long speech she didn’t even once mentioned the biggest crisis in India currently UNEMPLOYMENT . Keeping in mind that the data leaked from NSSO about Unemployment being at 45 year high . The government called it Rubbish before elections but as soon as Elections were over they validated the data . So having a 6% unemployment is not in the priority list of SABKA VISHVAS wali Sarkar . Though our PM appreciated this budget and called it very good for poor and middle class with growth target in mind . The Opposition came firing at government calling it Vissionless and just full of fake promises .

So these were the main points which if you read you will have more than enough idea about this budget and it’s implication in our daily lives . But I would also suggest go through the full budget as well and if not possible atleast read out all the newspaper available to get a complete idea .

This was all I had of this Budget . Let’s hope it helps in achieving the targets and we reach newer heights specially the 5 Trilllion Economy if not on target then soon after it . Also hope we get to see a better Roadmap for your growth in coming Budgets in subsequent years by this Government .

Will meet in the next Article guys , perhaps on India’s World Cup campaign . Leaving out with a Quote given by our finance minister during speech :

“YAKEEN HO TO KOI RAASTA NIKALTA HAI
HAWA KI OAT LEKAR BHI CHIRAAG JALTA HAI” … !!!!!

JAI HIND

ARUENSH SINHA