Nirmala Sitharaman to table PM Modi govt’s 10th Union Budget in Parliament at 11 am

Union Budget 2022-23 Speech by FM Nirmala Sitharaman, Budget Highlights

Budget 2022 LATEST Updates: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is expected to strike a fine balance between being fiscally prudent and growth supportive when she presents her fourth straight budget on Tuesday, which is expected to have plans to boost spending to revive investment and create jobs.

This budget will be the fourth one presented by the Narendra Modi led BJP government during its second tenure. The Budget session will start at the Parliament around 11 am on 1 February.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman is likely to strike a fine balance between being fiscally prudent and growth supportive when she presents her fourth straight budget tomorrow, which is expected to have plans to boost spending to revive investment and create jobs.

The Budget for the fiscal year starting 1 April, 2022 is likely to raise spending on infrastructure to set the economy on a firmer footing.

The stage for the Budget presentation was set by the Economic Survey on 31 January stating that the government has the fiscal space to do more to support the economy that is forecast to grow at a healthy 8-8.5 per cent growth in the 2022-23 fiscal.

Asia’s third-largest economy is estimated to expand 9.2 per cent in the fiscal year that ends in March, following a contraction of 7.3 per cent in the previous fiscal.

Analysts said the finance minister will have to strike a fine balance while keeping up the momentum of the country’s promising but fledgling economic recovery and tax collections, but at the same time look at bringing in measures to spur demand, create jobs and tackle inflation as the country deals with the ongoing third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With a goal to reach a $5-trillion economy by FY25, capital expenditure allocation is expected to continue to remain higher while healthy tax revenues and mega disinvestment pipeline may help contain the fiscal deficit to 5 per cent in FY23.

The buoyancy in tax revenues, relatively contained spending and higher nominal GDP growth is expected to have contained the fiscal deficit in the current fiscal to 6.3 per cent, below the projection of 6.8 per cent. Within infrastructure segment, higher allocation towards roads, railways and water are expected.

Also, the focus would be on ease of tax compliance, simplification and digitisation as well as ease of doing business.

Measures to support small businesses and the rural economy are also likely to form part of the Budget. To boost domestic manufacturing, the budget presentation may also touch upon the government’s Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) applicable for the telecom, pharmaceuticals, steel, textiles, food processing, white goods, IT hardware and solar sectors.

It is unclear if Sitharaman will tinker with income tax rates but there is an expectation that the exemption limit of Rs 2.5 lakh will be raised.

Sitharaman would use the Budget as the cornerstone to put the economy on an accelerated growth path after the impact caused by the pandemic. Amendments in the tax law to bring about sustainable growth, infrastructure investment, focus on R&D spending, nurturing incentives to the core sectors, including manufacturing and services, tapping the huge experience of running captive centres are some of the priority items on the agenda of the government.

The Budget Session in the Parliament began on Monday and is scheduled to conclude on 8 April  with a recess in-between from 12 February to 13 March.

Addressing the media ahead of the start of the session, Modi said it is true that because of frequent elections, sessions and discussions get affected but elections have their own place and will keep happening, and hoped that there are discussions that are free, thoughtful, full of human sensitivities, and with good intent.

There are many opportunities for India in today’s global situation and asserted that the country’s economic progress, vaccination program against COVID-19, and India-made vaccines have built trust for it across the globe, he said.

In this budget session also the “open-minded” discussions of parliamentarians can become an important opportunity for making a global impact, the Prime Minister said.

“I hope that all MPs and all political parties will definitely help in taking the country on the path of progress and in accelerating it by having quality discussions with an open mind,” he said.

The government has also convened an all-party meeting stating that it does not intend to bring any legislative business in Rajya Sabha during the first part of the Budget Session which is till 11 February.

President Ram Nath Kovind, on Monday in his address to the joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament at the start of the Budget Session, highlighted the achievements of the Modi government’s mega COVID-19 vaccination drive, and noted that 150 crore doses were administered to the country’s citizens in a record time.

Kovind said the Rs 64,000 crore PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission will prepare the country for a health crisis in the future.

The session begins ahead of the crucial Assembly elections in five states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur.

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