News Analysis India

Tag: Union Budget 2021

  • Budget fails to add sparkle to Jaipur’s jewellery industry

    Express News Service
    JAIPUR: The Union budget has failed to bring a sparkle to Jaipur’s gem and jewellery industry which has an annual turnover of about Rs 5,000 crores. While the reduction in import duties on gold and silver is a big positive move, most Jaipur jewellers are disappointed as the removal of import duties on rough coloured gemstones, which they were demanding for a long time, has not been met.

    Given the Covid-19 pandemic, this glittering industry has suffered a nearly 40% decline in sales over the past year. Most of the jewellers were hoping for big steps in the budget to encourage ‘ease of business’ for their industry. Jaipur is the hub of coloured gemstones in the world and the jewellers wanted the Modi government to scrap the .25% duty on import of rough gemstones. However, the budget was silent on their demand.

    Jaipur’s gem and jewellery industry, which employs nearly two lakh people, is disappointed. Sanjay Kala, the president of Jewellers Association of Jaipur remarked, “It’s strange that the duty on import of coloured stones has not been removed when the government is providing lots of subsidies to other industries and groups. We have no choice but to import rough coloured stones as raw materials and then we cut, polish and export them and give a huge amount as taxes. There is no logical reason why this duty on rough stones has not been removed even though our industry employs lakhs of skilled artisans.”

    He further said, “Covid has wasted a whole year for us and everyone has suffered about 40% of their business. Though import duty on gold has been cut by 5%, the GST on gold and an additional cess of 2.5% for agriculture infrastructure will hardly see any reduction in retail prices of jewellery.”

    Rajiv Jain, a former president of the Gem and Jewellery Promotion Council said: “Being the biggest hub of coloured gemstones in the world, most jewellers want this duty to be removed so that it promotes ease of business. While the amount of duty is not huge, its process is long and slows down our entire business and wastes a lot of time. All this could have been avoided.”

    However, some in the industry said the major cut in import duty on gold and silver will revive their trade which has been suffering in recent years. The import duty on gold and silver has been reduced from 12.5% to 7.5%.

  • Nothing for ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ as budget for WCD Ministry reduced by over 18 per cent

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: The proposed budget for the Union Women Child Development Ministry was reduced by over 18 per cent as compared to the last fiscal. Also, there is no allocation earmarked for the Centre’s flagship Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme.

    The sum set aside for the ministry in 2021-22 is Rs 24,435 crore. It was Rs 30, 001 last year, which was later revised to Rs 21,008 crore.

    Of the total budget, the highest amount — Rs 20, 105 crore — has been allocated to the newly announced Saksham Anganwadi and Mission Poshan 2.0 scheme.

    Mission Poshan 2.0 in an umbrella scheme covering the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), Anganwadi services, Poshan Abhiyaan, scheme for adolescent girls and the national creche scheme.

    However, schemes like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, one stop centres, Swadhar Greh, child protection, Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana and Ujjawala have not been allocated anything in this budget.

    The budget of autonomous bodies such as Central Adoption Resource Agency have either remained the same or received marginal raise.

    “To strengthen nutritional content, delivery, outreach, and outcome, we will merge the Supplementary Nutrition Programme and the Poshan Abhiyan and launch Mission Poshan 2.0,” said Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. 

    The total amount for the social services sector, which includes nutrition and social security and welfare, has been increased from Rs 2,411.80 crore in 2020-21 to Rs 3,575.96 crore.

  • Budget woes: Customs duty hike may make ACs costlier, says industry

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has proposed an increase in customs duty on items that included mobile phone parts and compressors.

    Industry body Consumer Electronics and Appliances Manufacturers Association (CEAMA) President Kamal Nandi said, “The customs duty revision for the compressors, used in refrigeration and air conditioning, from 12.5% to 15% will promote indigenous manufacturing… There have been increases in import duties on motors and PCBs as well.”

    He, however, added, “these are good for the medium and long term but will impact price adversely in short term due to insufficient output capacities.”

    All compressors used in domestic manufacturing of ACs and refrigerators are imported from overseas. Hence a customs duty hike may impact prices of finished goods.

    Manufacturers such as Panasonic, Blue Star and LG said that they would bear the impact instead of passing it on to the consumers.

    The Union Budget 2021 also announced a 2.5% customs duty on certain mobile phone parts and power banks for greater domestic value addition.

    Counterpoint Research Associate Director Tarun Pathak said there might be an increase in prices for short term or a modest increase. 

    Sitharaman also proposed to hike customs duty on specific auto parts like ignition wiring sets, safety glass, parts of signaling equipment, from 7.5-10% to 15%. The parts would also attract agri infrastructure and development cess at 5%.

  • Budget 2021: Freight corridors in focus as Sitharaman announces record Rs 1.10 lakh allocation for Railways

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday announced a record Rs 1.10 lakh crore allocation for the Indian Railways of which Rs 1.07 lakh crore would be for capital expenditure.

    “The plan is to create a future ready railway system by 2030 bringing down the logistic cost for industry is at the core of the strategy to enable Make In India,” she announced in Parliament.

    Noting that the eastern and western dedicated freight corridors would be completed by mid-2022, Sitharaman proposed a host of other initiatives.

    “The following additional initiatives are also proposed. The Sonenagar-Gomoh section of 263 km on EDFC will be taken up in PPP mode this year itself. Gomoh-Dankuni section of 274.3 km will also be taken up shortly in short succession,” she said.

    The Railways, Sitharaman said, will take up works for future dedicated freight corridor projects — East Coast Corridor from Kharagpur to Vijaywada, East-West Corridor from Bhusawal to Kharagpur to Dankuni and North-South Corridor from Itarsi to Vijaywada. Complete electrification of broad gauge route would be done by December 2023. 

    Stressing on the passenger convenience and safety, she said the Railways would introduce the aesthetically-designed vistadome Linke Hofmann Busch coaches on tourist routes for better travel experience to passengers.

    Two new technologies — metro lite and metro neo — will also be adopted by the national transporter to provide metro services at much less cost with same experience, convenience in tier II and tier III cities and peripheral areas.

    For safety, trains on high-density network would be provided with indigenously developed automatic train protection system that eliminates train collision resulting out of human error.  

  • Farmers will not benefit from Union Budget 2021: Congress

    The Central government is just offering dreams. I think they did not give weightage to two important sectors namely defence and agriculture, senior leader Kapil Sibal said.

  • Worry for government? Economic survey finds poor service in private hospitals

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  Despite push from the government for promotion of privatisation in the health sector, the latest Economic Survey has underlined the poor quality of service in private hospitals and suggested setting up agencies to assess the quality of doctors and hospitals.

    As per the report tabled in Parliament on Friday, while the share of public institutions has increased both in hospital and outpatient care, the private sector dominates in total healthcare provision in India.

    Around 74 per cent of outpatient care and 65 per cent of hospitalisation care is provided through the private sector in urban India.

    Citing a research study, the report highlights that a large proportion of deaths in India manifests due to poor quality of healthcare than insufficient access.

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    To understand the difference in quality between the public and private sector providers, data from the Centre’s flagship Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana has also been used.

    The data show that mortality rate for neonatal procedures is much higher in private hospitals than in public hospitals — 3.84 per cent and 0.61 per cent, respectively.

    Also, public sector patients get readmitted to the same hospital 64 per cent of the time versus 70 per cent for private hospitals.

    “So, a large proportion of deaths in India manifesting due to poor quality of healthcare is likely to reflect that the quality of treatment in the private sector may not be significantly better than that in the public sector in India,” says the report.

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    The report also says the problem of asymmetric information in healthcare is reflected in the substantial variation in costs for treating the same disease between the public and private sector.

    As argued above, the quality of treatment in the private sector does not seem to be markedly better when compared to the public sector. 

  • PM Modi to chair all-party meeting on Jan 30, to put forth legislative agenda for Budget Session

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI:  Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair an all-party meeting on Saturday to put forth the government’s legislative agenda for the Budget Session of Parliament.

    This time the customary all-party meeting is being held after the beginning of the session.

    The Budget Session began on Friday with President Ram Nath Kovind addressing the joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament.

    Usually such all-party meetings are held ahead of parliamentary sessions to ensure smooth functioning of both the Houses.

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    During the virtual meeting, opposition parties are likely to demand a debate on the farmers’ agitation underway at various border points of Delhi.

    The opposition parties had raised a similar demand at an all-party meeting convened by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Friday, but the government suggested that the issue of farmers’ agitation can be raised during the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address for which 10 hours have been allocated in Lok Sabha on February 2,3 and 4.

    Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha are meeting in shifts of five hours each to ensure distancing norms.

    While Rajya Sabha will meet in the morning, Lok Sabha will meet in the second half of the day.

  • Finance Minister gave four-five mini-budgets in 2020, upcoming budget will be seen as part of that series: PM

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: Asserting that this decade is very important for the bright future of India and should be fully utilised, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that a golden opportunity has come before the nation to fulfill the dreams seen by the freedom fighters for the country.

    While addressing media ahead of the commencement of the Budget Session of Parliament, PM Modi said that all MPs will make the Budget session very productive. He said that the Union Budget 2021 will be seen as a part of those 4-5 mini budgets announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in 2020.

    “Today commences the first session of this decade. This decade is very important for the bright future of India. A golden opportunity has come before the nation to fulfill the dreams seen by the freedom fighters. This decade should be fully utilised. Keeping this in mind, there should be discussions in this session focussing on the decade – this is expected by the nation. I believe that we will not lag behind in making our contribution for the fulfilment of people’s aspiration,” he added.

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    “This is the Budget Session. For the first time in India’s history, in a way, the Finance Minister had to present 4-5 mini budgets in 2020 in the form of different packages. So this Budget will be seen as a part of those 4-5 mini budgets, I believe this,” he added.

    PM Modi further said that he believes that parliamentarians will not lag behind in their contribution towards the fulfilment of people’s aspirations by making full use of Parliament.

    The first part of the session will continue till February 15. The second part of the session will be held from March 8 to April 8.

    Rajya Sabha will function from 9 am to 2 pm and Lok Sabha from 4 pm to 9 pm with Zero Hour and Question Hour.

  • Budget Session: No MP has tested positive for COVID-19 till now, say sources

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: Ahead of the Budget Session today, sources have confirmed that till now, not a single Member of Parliament has been tested positive for COVID-19.

    Speaking to ANI, the sources informed, “Almost 140 Members of Parliament would be bringing their own COVID-19 test reports from the states they are arriving from. Not even a single MP has been tested positive for COVID-19 till now.”

    Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is expected to table the Economic Survey 2020-21 in Parliament today, two days before the Union Budget is presented during the Budget Session.

    The Budget Session will begin today with an address by President Ram Nath Kovind to the joint sitting of two houses of Parliament.

    The first part of the session will continue till February 15. The second part of the session will be held from March 8 to April 8.

    Rajya Sabha will function from 9 am to 2 pm and Lok Sabha from 4 pm to 9 pm with Zero Hour and Question Hour.

  • Government terms Opposition boycott of Presidential address ‘unfortunate’, urges them to attend

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: Terming the Opposition parties’ boycott of President Ram Nath Kovind’s address to the joint sitting of two houses of Parliament on the first day of Budget Session as “unfortunate”, Minister of State (MoS) for Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal on Friday appealed to the leaders of opposition parties to attend the address.

    “President’s address to Parliament is a non-political thing. The opposition should attend it. It is unfortunate that they have decided to boycott it,” Meghwal told ANI.

    Meanwhile, Giriraj Singh, Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Bihar’s Begusarai said that the Opposition is shredding the dignity of democracy by not attending the President’s address.

    “They are shredding the dignity of democracy. In the Parliamentary system, President has his own dignity and boycotting his address is insulting him,” Singh said on being asked about Opposition parties announcing their boycott of the President’s address at Parliament.

    Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has arrived at the Parliament to attend the Budget Session.

    A total of 16 political parties including–Congress, NCP, J-K National Conference, DMK, AITC, Shiv Sena, Samajwadi Party, RJD, CPI (M), CPI, IUML, RSP, PDP, MDMK, Kerala Congress (M) and AIUDF– in a joint statement on Thursday announced that they will boycott the President’s address in the Parliament to register their protest against the three farm laws.

    Apart from these 16 parties, BSP, AAP and SAD have also announced that they will also boycott the President’s address.

    The Budget Session will begin today with an address by President Ram Nath Kovind to Parliament.

    The first part of the session will continue till February 15. The second part of the session will be held from March 8 to April 8.

    Rajya Sabha will function from 9 am to 2 pm and Lok Sabha from 4 pm to 9 pm with Zero Hour and Question Hour.