PM Modi speaks ahead of advance budget session- Calls it a new beginning

• Tweet
• Pin It

The NDA government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is geared up to present the budget in the new session of Parliament. It is the first time in the history of Indian politics that the budget has been advanced by a month. Prime Minister Narendra Modi took this opportunity to hail the move as a new beginning and urged all political parties to help in the smooth functioning of parliament this session. PM  Modi said that it is a new beginning as for the first time the railway budget and annual budget are merged. This decision has put an end to a nearly century-long practice.

However, despite PM’s request Mamata Banerjee who is the leader of  Trinamool Congress announced that they will not be present in the parliament when Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will be presenting the government’s annual budget. The party had requested to delay the annual budget as it was coinciding with the important festival of Saraswati Puja. The festival is of utmost importance in the region of West Bengal. But according to the party, the government ignored their request and decided to move along with the budget.

As PM Modi arrived at the parliament he told that they were having discussions with the opposition parties in the public interest since the last few days. The government is under attack from all corners over the sudden demonetization drive that was announced on November 8.

Around 86% of the cash in circulation was scrapped as 500- and 1,000-rupee notes were abolished without any further notice. This created a situation of a cash crunch in the country and caused huge problems for the public. Most of the political parties have been criticizing the government for the failure of implementing the move.

The government will present the Economic Survey today which will which set the scene for the Finance Minister’s fourth annual budget.

The budget session will continue to be held in two parts like every year. The first part will start today and will end next week on February 9. The houses will meet again on March 9 and the second session will end on April 12.

This year’s budget is expected to be the most challenging yet for Arun Jaitley considering the effects the country has endured due to the effects of demonetization. It is hard to say when or how quickly the economy will recover from the hit it took from the demonetization.

The delay in the launch of a new national sales tax has not helped the government’s cause either. The government was hoping to improve tax compliance and check evasion by introducing the Goods and Services tax (GST), but the state and union governments have yet to work out its details.

According to the officials, the budget is likely to offer modest tax concessions and increase the spendings which might help the economy to recover quickly.

Bolstering consumer spending BJP might strengthen BJP’s fortunes in the five states including Uttar Pradesh and Punjab that start voting on Saturday. The opposition parties had filed a plea to delay the budget considering the upcoming elections. They requested to delay the budget until the elections are completed. They argued that unveiling the budget just before the elections will allow the ruling party to announce popular schemes which could influence the general public and give and unfair advantage to the party.  However, the honorable Supreme Court ruled out the argument and stated that the budget should be held as scheduled. The Election Commission has already banned references to work accomplished to the states that are voting.

Mr. Jaitley may increase the service tax ahead of the GST’s expected launch from July 1  to bring it into line with the proposed standard rate under the new tax regime. I t is likely that government’s key theme in this year’s budget might be to use additional borrowing to support growth. Possible measures include higher public investment as well as reducing personal income and corporate tax.

Meanwhile, there is a risk that India may lose its status as world’s fastest growing economy to China. A recent poll has predicted that Asia’s 3rd largest economy lost huge momentum in the final quarter of 2016 after the demonetization dented the business area badly.

• Tweet
• Pin It