In the year 2019, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, who was holding the additional responsibility of Finance Minister, had given income tax exemption to taxable income up to Rs 5 lakh to attract the middle class. Besides, it was also announced to provide Rs 6,000 in cash to 12 crore farmers under the Prime Minister Kisan Samman Nidhi.
The middle class and farmers have high expectations from Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the interim budget to be presented on Thursday, February 1, before the general elections. It is expected that the government will definitely bring something for both in this election budget. However, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and PM Narendra Modi have already said that no policy decision will be taken in this budget. Still, it is certain that in view of the elections, some decisions can be taken which can provide relief to the farmers and the middle class. Let us also tell you what kind of expectations are there from these two categories as the largest voters of the country.
From farmer to middle class
Former Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg believed that the interim budget presented before the Lok Sabha elections is an opportunity for the party in power to attract voters through freebies and populist schemes. He said that we have seen this happening even in the interim budget presented before the general elections in 2019. Garg said the government had targeted the middle class, farmers and unorganized sector workers in the interim budget presented before the general elections in 2019. Altogether these are approximately 75 crore voters. There is a possibility that the government will take special care of these voters this time too.
This was the scene in 2019
In the year 2019, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, who was holding the additional responsibility of Finance Minister, had given income tax exemption to taxable income up to Rs 5 lakh to attract the middle class. Besides, it was also announced to provide Rs 6,000 in cash to 12 crore farmers under the Prime Minister Kisan Samman Nidhi. Apart from this, government contribution to the retirement pension of 50 crore workers associated with the unorganized sector (PM Shram Yogi Maandhan -SYM) was also proposed. In view of this, it is being expressed in various areas that such announcements can be made in this interim budget also. Generally, the interim budget does not contain major policy announcements, but there is no bar on the government from taking such steps which are necessary to deal with the issues facing the economy.
Nirmala will make many records as soon as she presents the budget
This is Sitharaman's sixth consecutive budget. Along with this, he will have many records in his name. She will equal Morarji Desai's record of presenting five consecutive full budgets and one interim budget. Also, Sitharaman is the first full-time woman Finance Minister, who has presented five full budgets since July 2019 and on Thursday she will present the vote on account i.e. interim budget. With Sitharaman presenting the interim budget on February 1, she will leave behind the records of former finance ministers like Manmohan Singh, Arun Jaitley, P Chidambaram and Yashwant Sinha. These leaders had presented five consecutive budgets. As Finance Minister, Desai presented five annual budgets and one interim budget between 1959–1964. Modi government handed over the responsibility of Finance Department to Sitharaman in its second term after the 2019 general elections. She became the second woman after Indira Gandhi to present the budget. Indira Gandhi presented the budget for the financial year 1970-71.
What will be the fiscal deficit?
Talking about the question on the fiscal deficit situation, Garg said that the government has estimated the fiscal deficit to be Rs 17.9 lakh crore i.e. 5.9 percent. This was based on an estimate of gross domestic product (GDP) of Rs 301.8 lakh crore. If the GDP in the first advance estimate for 2023-24 is Rs 296.6 lakh crore, this becomes six percent i.e. Rs 17.8 lakh crore. This is almost equal to the target set in the budget.
What about the revenue front?
When asked about the situation on the revenue front, Garg said that the income tax collection will be much better than the budget estimate. GST is as per target. The performance of Customs and Excise has certainly been poor. But due to higher dividends from RBI (Reserve Bank of India) and PSUs (Public Sector Undertakings), non-tax revenue will be higher than the budget estimate. Disinvestment earnings have disappointed quite a bit. Overall, non-debt receipts are likely to remain in good shape for additional expenditure.
tax collection status
According to sources, there is a surge in income and corporate tax collection in the current financial year. Due to this, the total direct tax collection may be about Rs 1 lakh crore more than the budget estimate. The government had set a budget target of raising Rs 18.23 lakh crore from direct taxes for the financial year 2023-24. The tax collection under this item till January 10, 2024 was Rs 14.70 lakh crore, which is 81 percent of the budget estimate. There are still more than two months left for the completion of the financial year. On the GST front, the Central GST revenue is expected to be about Rs 10,000 crore more than the budget estimate of Rs 8.1 lakh crore. However, there is a possibility of a shortfall of about Rs 49,000 crore in excise duty and customs duty collections.
No comments:
Post a Comment