Budget 2021 Live: FM concludes Budget 2021 speech; Markets up 2%

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman concludes Budget 2021-22 presentation.

Here are the Budget 2021 documents:

Budget 2021 speech

Budget 2021 Highlights

The Finance Bill, 2021

Implementations of Budget announcements 2021

Overall Highlight of Budget 2021-22

FM announces raise in customs duty on cotton from 0% to 10%; on raw silk and silk yarn from 10% to 15%.

To support domestic manufacturing in the solar sector, The duty increased for solar inverters from 5% to 20%.

Custom duty exemptions on tunnel boring machines to be withdrawn, says FM.

Custom duty on gold and silver to be rationalised

Duty on copper scrap reduced, says FM. The duty has been reduced from 5% to 2.5%

New customs duty structure to come in from October 1, says FM.

Government to set up a Development Finance Institution, come up with a Bill.

GST reforms:

Proposal to remove 400 old exemptions. From October 1, 2021, a revised customs duty structure free of distortions.

With the announcements for Infrastructure and a growth oriented budget, the Sensex rose 700 points and is at 47,056.

To further ease filings of IT returns: interest from banks, dividend income etc will be prefilled in the form says FM

Tax incentive to IFSC:

To make GIFT-IFSC, a global financial hub, FM announces additional tax holidays to aircraft leasing companies and those relocating foreign funds to IFSC-GIFT.

Affordable housing:

Relaxation on loans till March 31, 2022. Projects get exemption, too.

Affordable housing projects can avail a tax holiday of one more year till March 31, 2022

FM announces relaxation for foreign investments in infrastructure sector.

Dividend payments to REIT and Invit to be exempt from TDS.

National faceless income tax appellate tribunal to be established

FM announces dispute resolution committee for small taxpayers upto Rs 50 lakh.

Propose to reduce time limit for reopening of assessment cases to 3 years from 6 years: FM

 Senior Citizens get exemption from filing returns. The paying bank will deduct necessary tax.

Budget 2021 --Part B:  Taxation

Tax system needs to be transparent: FM

FM announces to amend FRBM act.

Contingency Fund of India to be augmented.

Fiscal Deficit for 2020-2021 pegged at 9.5% -- funded through govt borrowing, multilateral, short-term borrowings.

Need additional Rs 80,000 crore --hence will approach market in these two months, to meet BE estimate on spending.

Around 69 crore beneficiaries or 86% covered under one-nation, one-ration.

FM announces, special scheme for tea workers in West Bengal and Assam.

First digital census to be carried out this year

Deep sea ocean biodiversity conservation gets some critical funds in the budget

  A national language translation mission to be introduced.

Rs 1,500 crore scheme to enhance digital payment modes.

Propose to set up a central university in Leh to promote higher education in Ladakh. Also announces, more ekalavya residential schools.

Around 100 new Sainik Schools to be set up in partnership with private players and government

Around Rs 15,700 crore for MSME has been provided, which is more than double of previous year, says FM.

FM proposes to launch portal to collect relevant info on gig workers, building and construction workers among other.

One nation, one ration card scheme:

Migrant workers will be benefited from the scheme. The scheme is being implemented by 32 States and UTs reaching 69 crore beneficiaries. The remaining four states and UTs will be integrated in few months.

A new seaweed park to be built in Tamil Nadu, says FM.

Government to increase provision to rural infra development fund to Rs 40,000 cr from Rs 30,000 cr, says FM.

Agri credit target for FY21 is ₹16.5 lakh crore.

Around 1,000 more mandis will be integrated with eNAM.

Allocation for credit growth in agriculture stands at Rs 16.5 lakh crore, says FM.

Aspirational India Animal husbandry

-- Dairies allocation for RIDF and micro irrigation funds enhanced

Aspirational India Agriculture Payments made to farmers under MSP for Pulses

-- 2013-14 RS 236 crore

-- 2019-20 RS 8,285 crore

--2020-21 Rs 10,530 crore

MSP Regime :

In case of wheat total amount paid to farmers in 2013-14 was Rs 33,874 crore; Rs 62,802 crore in 2019-20; Rs 75,060 crore in 2020-21.

Disinvestment set at Rs 1,75,000 crore for 2021-22.

Have asked Niti Aayog to list out companies for disinvestments, says FM.

All disinvestments announced so far will be completed in FY22, says FM.

Govt approves, disinvestment in non-strategic and non-strategic strategies.

In 2021-22, IPO of LIC will be brought up.

FM announces plans to incentives incorporation of one person companies without any restriction on paid up capital. Can set up this company in 180 days. Thus to boost to start-up in India.

Government to launch Securities Market Code.

AM announces hike in Upper Cap on FDI in insurance finally comes in Budget - from present 49 per cent to 74 per cent.

Proposes amendment of Insurance Act to accommodate FDI

GIFT-IFSC to become a financial hub. Will get an Institutional framework to encourage robust Corporate bond market.

- Ujjawal scheme will be extended

-- Gas pipeline project in Jammu and Kashmir

--Independent Gas Transplant system operator will be set up

Hydrogen energy mission for generating hydrogen power from green sources.

Power infra scheme for discoms infra development, smart metering, feeder separation: An outlay of Rs 3.5 lakh crore over 5 years

Power demand:

A framework will be given for consumers to choose from the alternatives of distribution comapnies.

Metro Lite and Metro Neo projects announced to provide low cost offerings, says FM.

Chennai metro railway phase 2 at the cost of nearly Rs 62000 crore.

Railways:

New look coaches and safety measures, high-density networks will get automatic train protection system in Railways soon.

Physical and financial capital and Infrastructure:

--For textile industry, scheme of mega investment textile park will help create world class infrastructure, FM.

--Debt financing of Invits and Reits will be enabled.

--Railways will monetise dedicated freight ways .

-- Other core infrastructure asset monetisation plans  are: NHAI operational toll road; oil and gas pipeline - GAIL, HPCL and more;  Airport Authority of India in tier 2-3 cities; sport stadiums

--FM announces national highway work in various Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Assam among others.

--Urban infra: work to increase share of public transport through expansion of metro and augmentation of public bus services

Health and Wellbeing:

--Scraping policy a voluntarily vehicle scarping policy to help reducing polution abnd oil import bills. Vehicles will be undergo fitness test.

--FM announces  Rs 35,000 cr for Covid vaccine drive.

--Overall, the budget has allocated Rs 2,23,000 crore for this health and wellbeing.

The pillars of this budget are

-- Health and well being

-- Physical and financial capital and Infrastructure

--Agriculture

-- human capital

-- Innovation and R&D

--Minimum government, max governance

She emphasised that  this budget will be a digital budget.

She also said that the Government is fully prepared to support our economic reset. The part A of the budget is Atma Nirbhar Bharat vision.

The Modi government has presented almost five mini budgets, says FM at the start of the presentation.

FM Nirmala Sitharaman starts the Budget 2021 presentation at the Parliament.

Railway Budget expectations:

Delivering on earlier promises and making the Railways future-ready while ensuring safety is expected to be the focus area for the people-mover in the Budget.

So, completion of the ongoing dedicated freight corridor, having better coaches, using modern signalling systems, safety, taking the network to the North-East and going ahead with projects, as envisaged in the final draft of the National Rail Plan, in the next few years will be some of the priority areas for the Railways in the Budget, indicate sources.

While the Covid year was challenging due to infection transmission fears, the national transporter focussed on moving goods and used that time (when there were no passenger trains) to build infrastructure. By January, it had already exceeded the length of tracks it had to build during the entire fiscal.

Take a look at MGNREGA report card:

For the past three years, many adivasis from remote Peth taluka of Nashik district in Maharashtra have not migrated to cities in search of work and livelihood. They grow rice enough to sell at the local market, thanks to the construction of farm ponds, stone and mud bunds and other agriculture-related works carried out under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

Besides addressing the problem of migration from villages, the scheme has helped provide employment to migrant labourers dislocated this fiscal year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As compared to the last financial year, the Centre has increased funding under MGNREGA scheme by ₹19,091 crore due to Covid-19 outbreak. Experts think that the Budget allocation to the scheme should be increased to help the rural economy in FY22.

The average per day wage rate for unskilled work under the scheme went up by 10 per cent from ₹182 in 2019-20 to ₹200 in the current year. There has been an overall rise of ₹42,700 crore in government funding from 2016-17 to the current financial year. During the same period, the overall rise in wages of ₹23,575 crore has been recorded (from ₹40,750 in 2016-17 to ₹64,326 crore in 2020-21).

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, along with MoS Finance Anurag Thakur, leave North Block carrying the Bahi Khata.

Stock market expectations:

There is hope in the market that the Budget most likely will arrest the 6-day slide in the benchmark indices. Analysts are expecting Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to present a growth-oriented and path-breaking Budget that will usher in all-round development.

SGX Nifty points a 50-point gap up opening for Nifty index on Monday as the former is ruling at 13,744 as against Nifty50 Feb futures Friday’ close of 13,709. Asia-pacific markets give a positive signal Japan, Taiwan, Shanghai (China) and Hong Kong markets edging up through the Australian market is flat but in green.

Budget expectations:

All eyes are on Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as she has promised that the 2021-22 Budget will be like no other in the past and help India emerge the engine for global growth.

If, indeed, she redeems this promise, the Budget she will present today can be expected to be ‘expansionary’, with at least a 10-15 per cent increase in expenditure over and above ₹30.42-lakh crore proposed in the last Budget.

A hint of what the Budget could offer also came from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s customary remarks on the opening day of the Budget session of Parliament. He said the Budget should be seen as a part of a chain of the ‘4-5 Mini Budgets’ 2020 saw.

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