Growth-oriented Budget with a balanced approach

Being a technology company that promotes digitisation, we are excited to see the first-ever Digital Budget in the history of India. The government is leading by example the way it is adopting digital transformation, be it faceless tax assessments or going all the way to make the Budget process entirely digital.

Keeping in view the fact that the world is fighting the battle with first-ever pandemic in the past 50 years, this Budget is a very balanced and a growth-oriented one. This should help bring the economy back on the right track with maintaining its continuous focus on ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’.

Incentivisation scheme

The government has earmarked large pool of funds for vaccines with a clear commitment to providing healthcare support to citizens of India.

Incentivisation scheme declared in the Budget for digital transactions is a welcome step and will further fuel the digital payments landscape in the country.

Incremental investments in the insurance and infrastructure sectors will definitely give a boost to the economy and ensure financial inclusion of the masses.

The Budget clearly shows the government’s willingness to shift towards a better tax framework by taking the faceless schemes to the ITAT level after the introduction of faceless assessment and appeals last year.

Further, concentrated efforts to ensure proper GST compliance by using technological tools, have yielded good results to increase GST collections.

Further relaxation in compliances under corporate laws for small companies and the proposal of consolidating the provisions of SEBI Act, Depositories Act, Securities Contracts Regulation Act and Government Securities Act are long-awaited steps for simplifications of laws and compliance.

Overall, this is a very balanced Budget that will fuel growth, keeping in view that the challenge from the pandemic is not yet fully over.

The writer is Chief Financial Officer at Paytm