Parul
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the first budget of Modi 3.0 and middle-class taxpayers were expecting some tax cuts.
Their expectations were genuine because the government got bumper non-tax revenue in the form of dividends from RBI and GST collections are also rising.
The central government is no longer under any obligation to meet the GST revenue shortfall even if it goes down and the government is in a better fiscal situation.
If we decipher the budget proposals, it appears to be good for macro-economic stability and there is stress on infrastructure development push, skill development, employment generation, climate change, ease of doing business, promoting Research & Development (R&D) etc. which are very much needed and FM deserves the applause.
The economic survey highlighted that though there has been improvement over a decade but still only 51.25 per cent of college pass-out is deemed employable.
Similarly, artificial intelligence is the next big opportunity as well as a threat for India and therefore creating a pool to promote R&D in collaboration with the private sector was desired.
If we compare our R&D spend then we lag far behind the US, China etc. and if India were to grow then we must spend more on innovation. From a perspective, our exports have a very low value-add component and though on the face of it, the numbers may look nice but corresponding economic indicators will not move.
Major initiatives taken in the past are yielding consistent returns. For example, IBC has helped in the recovery of ~Rs. 3.3 lakh crore to lenders and cases involving ~Rs. 10.2 lakh crores were settled at the pre-admission stage itself.
