The third largest economy in Asia, and fifth in the world, India, is a major economy. The current Budget Session of India began on February 1 and the government has projected India’s economy to grow at 9.2% over the fiscal year 2022-23, claimed to be the highest among any economy in the world. The numbers look good on paper and the government is ready to spend more to grease India’s economic growth through public (or government) investment. Apart from proposing to spend more, the Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget speech has also shown a preview of what the future would look like, by proposing to launch ‘digital rupee’ using blockchain technology in 2022-23, and announced a scheme for taxation of virtual digital assets, for whatever that means. Understanding the budget is indeed a difficult question for the ordinary citizen
The Finance Minister has also introduced a new scheme called Prime Minister’s Development Initiative for North East (PM-DevINE), to be implemented through the North Eastern Council with an initial allocation of Rs. 1,500 crore. Emphasis on domestic manufacturing across sectors including defense; the education sector; digitization and information technology, and welfare schemes, as expected, found prominence in the budget presented by the Finance Minister. Meanwhile, the opposition parties have, as expected, again, criticized the budget which they say was aimed only to benefit the rich and one that lacked initiatives to increase employment opportunities or reduce inflation. Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi was quick to hit at the government over the budget by saying that it was a “zero sum budget” and that there was “nothing for the salaried class, middle class, the poor and deprived, youth, farmers and MSMEs.”
The current budget session that began on Monday will go on till February 11 and will, after a recess, resume again for the second part on March 14, which will go on till April 18. The Finance Minister’s budget presentation will, in all likelihood, be passed in both houses of the parliament despite the opposition parties’ criticisms. All said and done, the common citizen will go about his daily life without realizing much about the impact of the parliament’s budget session on his life.
The union budget is like an annual financial statement highlighting estimated receipts and expenditure of the central government before the beginning of each financial year, but the impact it has on the economy, and the citizens, lasts for decades. All concerned citizens ought to closely follow the union budget because it affects everyone in the country, including those of us here in the remotest corner.