"Earlier, governments were busy in vote bank appeasement but we are busy satisfying people," the prime minister said.
The interim Budget proposals that will be presented on February 1 in the backdrop of the general elections scheduled in April/May 2024 are likely to have a hint of populism, believe analysts, but are unlikely to derail the government from its path of fiscal prudence.
Amid FY23 Union Budget's focus on investments, leading domestic credit rating agency Crisil on Wednesday said that the capital expenditure is "not as high as it sounds". It, however, was quick to add that considering that governments usually tend to cut capex during a crisis, the government has maintained its focus on growth-spurring initiatives amid the pandemic. The research wing of the agency said, if one excludes the Rs 1 lakh crore of loans to states for capex included in the headline figure of Rs 7.50 lakh crore or 2.91 per cent, the actual spend in FY23, will go down to 2.58 per cent of GDP, which is barely at par with the revised estimate of FY22.
As the finance minister rises in the House to present the Budget, some interesting facts about the annual financial plan for the country.
Indian Railways plans Rs 39,000 crores non-fare revenue. Via: Branding of trains. Vinyl-wrapping of Rajdhanis, Shatabdis and Garib Raths. Moving billboards.
Attacking the government for a provision of a mere Rs 500 (Rs 5 billion).
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The development comes after the National Democratic Alliance government this year broke a 92-year-old tradition of presenting a separate Railway Budget, according to suggestions made by the Debroy committee.
Expressing commitment to augment the country's infrastructure, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday proposed to significantly enhance capital expenditure to Rs 5.54 lakh crore in the next fiscal, besides creating institutional structures and giving a big thrust to monetizing assets to achieve the goals of the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP). Sitharaman said NIP, that was launched in December 2019 with 6,835 projects, has now been expanded to 7,400 projects and around 217 projects worth Rs 1.10 lakh crore under some key infrastructure ministries have been completed. "For 2021-22, I propose a sharp increase in capital expenditure and thus have provided Rs 5.54 lakh crores which is 34.5% more than the BE of 2020-21," the finance minister said.
Railway Budget will be presented on February 26.
Prabhu's maiden Railway budget is high on vision.
Budget has already bombed at the box office and passing it without a revisit will be a mockery of the exercise though any modification may be short lived and perfunctory, observes V Ranganathan.
The Rajya Sabha approved 15 legislations during the session while the Lok Sabha passed 23 bills, including the GST bills.
This is the Upper House's third best productive session in the last 14 sessions since the Monsoon Session (243rd Session) of 2017, the Rajya Sabha officials said.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday unveiled a Rs 39.45 lakh crore Budget with a view to fire up the key engines of the economy to sustain a world-beating recovery from the pandemic. This was Sitharaman's fourth Budget. While the taxpayers were left in the lurch, once again, was she able to cheer Corporate India?
'China is struggling to get out of its property bubble.' 'Japan took 35 years to walk out of its equity bubble.' 'Bubbles can be difficult to forecast.'
'Investors should not go for lump-sum investments in infrastructure funds at this point.' 'The SIP route is the best to avoid any major disappointment.'
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 on Tuesday, which is expected to have plans to boost spending to revive investment and create jobs. The Budget for the fiscal year starting April 1, 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 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.
We have merely continued with the reforms we had undertaken last year. Nothing has been done with an eye on elections.
PSU divestment, LIC IPO, fiscal deficit: Budget 2021 marks a clear change in the Modi government's stance from fiscal conservatism to growth orientation.
We asked colleagues, present and past, to reflect on a man who has made such a difference to their lives and careers. Here it is then, a rich collection of memories that offer enchanting glimpses of the enigmatic Ajit Balakrishnan.
Using lines of a popular Hindi song, "Kya hua tera vaada (what happed to your promises)," Lalu attacked the PM.
Budget proposals have set four goals to transform Indian Railways.
Throughout its 155 minutes, every scene is doused in blaring background music and melodrama. Disappointment alone won't do, it must feel like a full blown catastrophe, observes Sukanya Verma.
Two premium new long-distance trains and plan to convert a strategically important metre gauge line into broad gauge were announced on Wednesday for the Northeastern region in the Railway Budget, but opposition BJP and AGP dubbed the sops as "frustrating".
Banerjee wants the two top leaders of the United Progressive Alliance to nudge the Planning Commission into including some of her most important initiatives in the Railway Budget.
The minister of state said the requirement of the ministry was more and resources were limited.
As per practice a vote-on-account or approval for essential government spending for a limited period is taken in the election year and a full-fledged budget presented by the new government.
It was also the shortest speech by Sitharaman, who had delivered the longest speech last year. Her first Budget speech in July 2019 went on for around 137 minutes and in 2020, it went on for more than 160 minutes and was cut short after she felt unwell.
To corner the Manmohan Singh government in the Budget Session of Parliament, a united opposition today demanded a debate on price rise on February 23, before the Railway Budget and the Union Budget are placed in the Lok Sabha.
Globally, London's Tube and French railway networks are already using this technology in their corrosion-prone areas.
Prabhu hoped that during this 3-4 years period, railways would be able to absorb the impact from their resources
CST Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Howrah, Sealdah, Thiruvanathapuram, Chennai, Bhopal, Madhura Junction, New Jalpaiguri and Kochi are some of the stations that will be modernised.
Most of the members, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, were seen wearing face masks. However, members had crowded the Lok Sabha chamber, while hardly a handful of others, including union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Piyush Goyal, were seen seated in the Rajya Sabha chamber.
The forthcoming Budget, the last full one before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, is expected to contain a number of sops and feel-good announcements, especially regarding social sector schemes.
Following the Budget being announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, leaders across the political spectrum provided their views.
'We need to look beyond the current approach'.
Industry body CII has pitched for a reduction in personal income tax rates, decriminalisation of the goods and services tax and a relook at the capital gains tax rates as part of its agenda presented to the government for the forthcoming Budget. Arguing that the GST law already contains adequate penal provisions for deterrence against evasion of taxes, CII has suggested decriminalisation of GST law. Also, the applicability of prosecution provisions should not be based on the absolute amount of tax evasion but should be based on real intent to evade the taxes and a certain percentage of the tax payable, it stated.
A notification issued by the railway board in the evening said new fares would come into effect from May 5.
The Railway Budget has impressed industry watchers.
Presenting the Railway Budget for 2010-11 in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee said that there will be no hike in freight tariff.
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