News Analysis India

Tag: budget

  • Budget is betrayal of salaried, middle classes: Congress hits out at Modi government

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday accused Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Prime Minister Minister Narendra Modi of betraying the country’s salaried and middle classes by not announcing any relief measures for them in the Union Budget.

    Congress general secretary and chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the salaried and the middle classes have been affected due to pay cuts and high inflation.

    “India’s salaried class and middle class were hoping for relief in times of pandemic, all round pay cuts and back breaking inflation. FM and PM have again deeply disappointed them in Direct Tax measures,” Surjewala said on Twitter.

    “This is a betrayal of India’s Salaried Class and Middle Class. #Budget2022,” he said in his initial remarks on the Union Budget.

    The comments came soon after the finance minister presented the union budget for 2022-23 in Parliament.

  • Indian economy contracts by 6.6 per cent in 2020-21: NSO data

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Indian economy contracted by 6.6 per cent in 2020-21 as against the earlier estimate of 7.3 per cent decline, showing that the COVID-19 pandemic hit economy did not perform as badly as was initially worked out.

    As per the provisional estimates released in May 2021, the GDP had contracted by 7.3 per cent during 2020-21 on account of the outbreak of COVID-19 and subsequent nationwide lockdown to contain the pandemic.

    The National Statistical Office has also revised downward the real GDP growth number for 2019-20 to 3.7 per cent as against the earlier estimate of 4 per cent.

    “Real GDP or GDP at constant (2011-12) prices for the years 2020-21 and 2019-20 stands at Rs 135.58 lakh crore and Rs 145.16 lakh crore, respectively, showing a contraction of 6.6 per cent during 2020-21 as compared to growth of 3.7 per cent during 2019-20,” National Statistical Office said in the revised national account data released on Monday.

    Under the first revision released in January 2021, real GDP or GDP at constant (2011-12) prices for the years 2019-20 was pegged at Rs 145.69 lakh crore, showing growth of 4 per cent during 2019-20.

    “In terms of real GVA (gross value added), i.e., GVA at constant (2011-12) basic prices, there has been a contraction of 4.8 per cent in 2020-21, as against growth of 3.8 per cent in 2019-20,” NSO stated.

    During 2020-21, the growth rates of the primary sector (comprising agriculture, forestry, fishing and mining & quarrying), secondary sector (comprising manufacturing, electricity, gas, water supply & other utility services, and construction) and tertiary sector (services) have been estimated as 1.6 per cent, (-)2.8 per cent and (-) 7.8 per cent as against a growth of 1.9 per cent, (-) 6.8 per cent and (-) 8.4 per cent, respectively, in the previous year.

    Nominal Net National Income (NNI) or NNI at current prices for the year 2020-21 stands at Rs 171.94 lakh crore as against Rs 177.17 lakh crore in 2019-20, showing a contraction of 2.9 per cent during 2020-21 as against growth of 6 per cent in the previous year, it stated.

    Per Capita Income i.e. Per Capita Net National Income at current prices is estimated at Rs 1,32,115 and Rs 1,26,855 respectively for the years 2019-20 and 2020-21, it stated.

  • Naidu, Birla discuss Covid-safe Budget Session

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Sunday discussed preparations for the Budget session of Parliament amid the surge in coronavirus cases.

    The session begins Monday with the address of President Ram Nath Kovind to members of both the Houses.

    During the meet, Birla suggested that members of both the Houses can be seated at different locations by name to avoid confusion, crowding, and inquiries. Naidu accepted the suggestion, parliamentary sources said.

    Due to Covid norms, the two Houses are meeting at different times. Members of the two Houses will be accommodated in chambers of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha as well as galleries to prevent crowding.

    To implement the sitting arrangement by name, parties have been approached to draw up a list of members who would be accommodated in various locations. Seats were allotted in chambers and galleries of both the Houses based on the strength of parties.

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    Given the reduction in the time of sitting of both the Houses by one hour per sitting due to staggered timings, Naidu and Birla took stock of the time available for different items of business. They underscored the need for cooperation from all sections of both the Houses for effective utilisation of available time.

    While Rajya Sabha would meet from 10 am to 3 pm, the Lok Sabha would sit from 4 pm to 9 pm. Officials informed the two presiding officers that the Parliament House complex has been sanitised and all possible measures are being taken to contain the spread of coronavirus.

    They were told that all MPs have been requested to take RT-PCR test 48 before the commencement of the Session. Part one of the session would end on February 11. The second part would begin on March 14 and conclude on April 8.

  • Opposition to raise farmers’ issues, Pegasus matter in Budget Session of Parliament

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The stage is set for a stormy Budget Session of Parliament that begins on Monday with the opposition set to target the Modi government on issues such as the Pegasus snooping row, farm distress and Chinese “incursions” in eastern Ladakh.

    The session will begin with President Ram Nath Kovind’s address to the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha assembled together in the Central Hall and chambers of both the Houses in view of the COVID-19 situation.

    Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Economic Survey 2021-22 on Monday and the Union Budget on Tuesday.

    Given the ongoing third wave of the pandemic, the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will return to have separate sittings in shifts with members seated across both chambers of Parliament to ensure distancing norms.

    The Lok Sabha will take up the discussion on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address from Wednesday and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to reply to the debate on February seven.

    Lok Sabha secretariat officials said four days beginning February 2 have been provisionally allotted for the discussion on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address.

    The first part of the Budget Session will be held from January 31 to February 11 after which it will go into recess to examine the budgetary allocations for different departments.

    The Session would resume on March 14 and conclude on April 8.

    The Budget Session is taking place amid a heated election campaign in five states – Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa, and Manipur – which go to polls in seven phases from February 10 to March 7.

    The main opposition Congress has declared that it will reach out to like-minded parties to raise issues such as farm distress, Chinese “incursions”, demand for relief package for COVID-19 victims, sale of Air India and the Pegasus snooping row during the session.

    Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu are set to chair separate meetings with floor leaders of political parties on Monday to ensure smooth functioning of the House during the session.

  • Bhupesh will keep third supplementary estimates for 2020-2021, paddy purchase-loan issue likely to create uproar

    Today is the second day of the budget session of the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly. CM Bhupesh Baghel will hold the third supplementary estimates for 2020-2021.
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    Tributes will be paid to the departed members on the second day of the budget session, while today School Education Minister Premasai Singh Tekam will introduce the Non-Governmental School Fee Regulation Act.
    BJP will raise the issue of irregularities in paddy procurement in the Assembly, there is a possibility of uproar on this issue. BJP MLA and former minister Brijmohan Agrawal will ask for the account of the amount received from the Center in the Campa item.

  • This time children will get a separate share in the state budget

    Children will get a separate share in the budget of Chhattisgarh government’s financial year 2021-22. The state government is giving it the name of the child budget. Boys and girls from zero to 18 years of age have been kept under this budget. For these, schemes operated in different departments will be organized simultaneously. According to an estimate, about 8 million children in the state will come under the purview of the child budget.

    Finance Department has completed its preparation. Earlier, the gender budget, agriculture budget and women’s budget have been presented separately in the state. The child budget will be presented for the first time. Several schemes for children are being operated in about half a dozen departments of the state. These include school education, primitive caste welfare, health, women and child development etc.

    The Finance Department has sought information from all departments about schemes for children up to 18 years of age. Based on this, the size of the child budget will be decided. It is not yet clear how much the child budget will contribute to the total budget. According to sources, the state budget could reach close to one lakh crore this year. In this, the child budget can be from 20 to 30 percent.

  • 3650 crores will be spent in Chhattisgarh out of budget received by Railways

    The South East Central Railway has received Rs 5050 crore for the financial year 2021-22. Out of this, 3650 crores will be spent in Chhattisgarh. This will give impetus to the ongoing infrastructure works under the state. The General Manager said that East West Dedicated Freight Corridor is to be constructed for the economic development of the region. It will pass through the Bhusaval-Nagpur-Dankuni South East Central Railway. The maximum part of it will pass through Chhattisgarh in South East Central Railway. Certainly, this corridor plan will prove to be a milestone for the economic development of Chhattisgarh.

    Extensive work is in progress on the new line, dabbling, gauge conversion and rail electrification plan focusing on infrastructure development. In the budget of 2021-22, an allocation of Rs. 404 crore has been made towards passenger amenities. Special attention has been paid to infrastructure and passenger amenities in this financial year. If we estimate Rs 3650 crore allocated for Chhattisgarh, then the average budget allocation for the financial year 2009-2014 is 1074 percent and 38 percent more than the average budget allocation for 2014-2019.

  • Previous governments drafted Budget with eye on vote bank: PM’s jibe at Congress

    Modi also released a postage stamp to mark the beginning of the centenary celebrations of the historic Chauri Chaura incident.

  • Increase in capital outlay of Defence amid pandemic is huge step, says IAF Chief

    By ANI
    BENGALURU: Indian Air Force (IAF) chief Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria on Thursday called the increase in the capital outlay of Defence budget “a huge step”, which will provide adequate budgetary support amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

    “We all know the pandemic effect and its impact on the economic scenario. To get this level (Rs 20,000 cr) increase in capital outlay, it’s a huge step by government to provide that kind of budgetary support,” IAF Chief told ANI on whether budget hike for modernisation would meet IAF requirements.

    “Last year also, additional funds of Rs 20,000 crores were provided. That helped the emergent procurement plans of the three forces and that really helped us. I think it is adequate for our capability building,” said IAF chief.

    This statement comes after defence forces received an overall hike of around 7.4 per cent over last year as Rs 3.62 lakh crore were provided to them excluding pensions amid the China military standoff.

    Additionally, the defence forces received more than 18 per cent hike over last year in capital outlay meant for acquisition of new weapon systems as Rs 1.35 lakh crore have been provided over the Rs 1.13 lakh crores last year.

    However, the budget documents also revealed that the Defence Ministry spent an extra amount of Rs 20,776 crore for buying new weapon systems and spares for the armed forces in the present fiscal over and above the funds allocated for the purpose.

    The additional Rs 20,776 crore has been spent on buying weapons and other spares under the special financial powers given to services under emergency and other provisions.

    The money has been used to acquire equipment like the Spice-2000 bombs, Spike anti-tank guided missiles, SiG Sauer assault rifles, Excalibur ammunition, multiple types of aircraft spares from Russia along with the ammunition for tanks and fighter jets.

    In the 2021-22 Union Budget, the Defence Ministry has been allocated Rs 4,78,195.62 crore. Rs 1.15 lakh crore have also been allocated for defence pensions which are disbursed to both military and civilians who have worked for defence Ministry.

  • Budget was for 1 per cent of population; gave wrong message to China: Rahul Gandhi

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday strongly criticised the Union Budget, saying it was for one per cent of the population and gave a wrong message to China by not significantly raising defence allocation.

    Addressing a press conference, Gandhi said the conditions in India are “dangerous” which require Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take quick action.

    Coming down heavily on Modi, Gandhi alleged there was no leadership in the country.

    “It (conditions) requires that the prime minister put money immediately into the hands of our people and revive the economy, it requires that he protects the small and medium businesses who give us jobs. It requires a clear message to China that ‘you cannot do this with us, you cannot be sitting inside our land and expect that nothing is going to happen,” he said.

    Alleging that there is no leadership in the country anymore, Gandhi said, “There is just talk, there is no understanding, no strategy. What is there is a media that is controlled so the reality of what is going on is not coming out. This maya is going to break.”

    Gandhi argued that what India needed was money in the hands of the people, asserting that the economy can be revived only through consumption and cannot happen from the supply side.

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    “My expectation from the Budget was that government will provide support to 99 per cent of India’s population. But this Budget is for one per cent population. You (the government) snatched away money from people in small and medium industry, workers, farmers, forces, and put it in the pockets of 5-10 people,” he alleged.

    If the government would have introduced something like the proposed income guarantee scheme NYAY, given money to small and medium industries, protected them, economy could have been revived, Gandhi said.

    “Economy will not get revived by the supply side. They are trying again and again and are giving money to one per cent of the population, but the economy will not revive. This is the reality,” the former Congress chief said.

    “China enters into India and takes away thousands of kilometres of our land. What message do you give them in our budget– that we won’t increase our defence expenditure. You raised it by Rs 3000-4000 crore. What message did you give? ‘You can enter India and do whatever you want, we won’t support our defence forces’,” Gandhi said.

    He said that jawans in Ladakh and air force pilots would be feeling that they are facing such an adversity, but the government is not giving them money.

    “The money which belongs to the forces, it is being given to those 5-10 people. This will not benefit the country,” he said.

    “The commitment of forces is cent per cent, the government’s commitment should be 110 per cent. Whatever our army, navy and air force need, the government should give them. What kind of patriotism is this that our army is standing in the cold in Ladakh and ‘you are not giving them money’,” Gandhi said.

    His remarks come two days after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget in Parliament.

    The overall defence budget for 2021-22 was hiked marginally by around 1.4 percent but there was a nearly 19 per cent rise in capital outlay for military modernisation.

    According to the 2021-22 budget documents presented by Sitharaman, the allocation for the defence services was increased to Rs 4.78 lakh crore compared to Rs 4.71 lakh crore in the 2020-21 budget.