Budget 2021 Highlights : A big jump in health budget, higher foreign investment in insurance and special emphasis on agriculture feature in Sitharaman's speech

The government on Monday budgeted Rs 1.75 lakh crore from stake sale in public sector companies and financial institutions, including two PSU banks and an insurance company, in the next fiscal. "Forget putting cash in the hands of people, Modi government plans to handover India's assets to his crony capitalist friends," he said after the presentation of the Union Budget. (PTI)

According to CAIT, no new tax has been imposed in the Budget, which makes it even more effective. Although there was speculation about fresh taxation since the last fortnight across the country, which has stopped now. However, CAIT's National General Secretary Praveen Khandelwal does not agree with the Finance Minister over GST. "We disagree with the Finance Minister that GST has been rationalised, whereas on the contrary GST has become a highly complex tax system and does not have much to offer to small traders." (IANS)

Care has been taken that it does not add burden on consumers.

Customs duty exemption on certain kinds of leather will be revoked.

Reducing duty on copper scrap halved to 2.5%. Duties on raw materials for the textile sector will also be cut. The duty on nylon and yarn cut to 5%.

400 old exemptions under customs duty will be reviewed. This will go through extensive consultations. A revised customs duty structure will be in place from Oct.

The tax holiday for developers of affordable housing will also be extended by a year

The advance tax liability on dividend income shall arise after the declaration or payment of dividend. Foreign portfolio investors will pay tax on dividends at "lower treaty rate".

If their only income is either through pension or interest, or both.

"Long awaited ask of aligning SEBI FPI regulations with InvIt and REITs regulations finally announced. Debt capital to now flow easily from foreign portfolio investors including ESR focussed funds and financial institutions."

"The announcement on setting up of a a new DFI focused on infrastructure financing along with the increased focus on roads and railways is a welcome move. This should give pension funds, sovereign funds and other long term or hold to maturity investors greater comfort to invest further into these sectors in India."

This will go towards bridging the fiscal deficit. Fiscal deficit will be less than 4.5% of GDP in the next five years. It will be a steady decline, the Finance Minister emphasised.

Setting up of 15 Health Emergency Centres shows the government’s intent to be future-ready to address any healthcare crises. It is commendable that the government has put healthcare on the forefront, putting focus on curative and preventive health and wellbeing.

This will carry a Brazilian satellite along with a few Indian onces. The first unmanned launch of Gaganyaan is slated for a launch in Dec 2021. Training for Gaganyaan is underway in Russia.

Higher Education Commission will be set up, says Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

This is a plan under the Stand up India programme for marginalised sections of the society.

This will be used to provide health and insurance facilities to these workers. Minimum wages will apply to all categories of workers. New labour codes will be employed. Women will be allowed to work in night shifts but the burden of compliance on employers will be reduced.

Micro irrigation fund to be doubled by ₹5,000 crore. Operation green scheme will be expanded to include 22 perishable schemes. Agriculture infra fund to be increased to ₹40,000 crore and this will be available to APMCs.

This is based on recommendations from the Finance Commission.

A special purpose vehicle will be created to execute this. Finance Minister expects ₹1.75 lakh crore from disinvestments in FY22.

Other than IDBI Bank, divestment plan for the two other PSU banks and one general insurance company to be executed. LIC IPO will happen in the next financial year i.e. FY22.

The limit for paid-up capital increased four fold, and the turnover limit increased 10 fold

Deposit insurance law will be tweaked so that depositors can get their insured amount of money back in a timely manner.

Foreign ownership and control will allowed. At least 50% of board members will be independent directors and a higher portion of the profit to be set as general reserve.

These will be partnerships between the government and private players.

The power distribution companies have been under debt and distress for years. A previous debt restructuring scheme did not yield the desired results.

Ratings agency ICRA had expected a budget deficit of 7.5% due to the additional expenses incurred due to the pandemic and the fall in tax revenue.

This will be higher than the estimated 5% for the next financial year by ratings agency ICRA.

Providing ₹1.18 lakh crore to roads ministry, our of which ₹1.08 lakh crore will be for capital expenditure.

The western Railway corridor will be functional by June 2022.

Another state that is headed for assembly elections this year.

₹1.03 lakh crore set aside for this. The state is headed for a state assembly election later this year.

To be provided for projects or departments that have shown good progress and need more funds. Over and above this, another 2 lakh crore to states and autonomous bodies and nudge states to create infrastructure.

The target for the new infra lending institution will be to have assets worth ₹5 lakh crore in 3 years.

This compares to a revised estimate of ₹94,452 crore for financial year 2021, a jump of 137%, the Finance Minister said.

Personal vehicles older than 20 years and commercial vehicles older than 15 years will undergo tests and phased out if they fail to meet the requirements.

The Jal Jivan Mission with an outlay of ₹2.87 lakh crore to be spent in 4378 urban local bodies over six years.

This will be in addition to National Health Mission. Support for both urban and rural health centres, establishing 12 central institutions, strengthening the NCDC, expansion of the health info portal to all states and UTs to connect all health labs, and much more.

75th year of independence, India's turn for BRICS presidency, and 50th year of the war with Pakistan.

The government has spent about 13% of GDP in the post-COVID relief measures, she added.

"The budget was prepared under circumstances like never before. When we presented the budget in 2019-20, we could not have imagined the unprecedented contraction in economy. "

Currently, public expenditure on education stands at 4.4% of GDP. Expert say India must spend at least 6% of national income on education.

Remember, we had a pandemic and a lockdown in 2020. There is no way the government is going to be even close to the targets set in the last budget. Read the full story here. https://www.businessinsider.in/budget/news/do-not-panic-when-finance-minister-nirmala-sitharaman-reads-out-the-revised-estimates/articleshow/80400869.cms

Banking and financial stocks are hot! IndusInd Bank (up over 7%) and ICICI Bank (up over 5%) are leading the rally in Sensex, which is up over 548 points.

- At the top of their list of requirements is their need to be recognized within the real estate sector. -Need for institutional capital: The co-working sector needs a financial push from the government. Expansion across the country, especially into the Tier 2 and 3 markets, would also require creating financial instruments and loans for the sector-Call for lower GST rates: Currently, co-working spaces charge GST of 18% to all their clients, which are mostly startups and small businesses. GST reduction to the lowest slab for upcoming startups would help co-working spaces retain them as long-term clients.

Coming out of two very difficult years, the lobby of car dealers in India is hoping for incentives and support from Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the upcoming Budget 2021 There is a long list of asks from the auto industry, including the dealers ⁠— from income tax relief to leave more disposable income in the hands of consumers to cuts in goods and services tax on automobiles and an increase in rural spending, infrastructure activity that will increase the need for trucks. The fear is Sitharaman has limited resources to spend.

India’s upcoming budget may set out a framework for setting up a bad bank to handle the expected influx of bad loans post-pandemic. According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), gross non-performing assets (NPAs) could balloon to 14.8% by September under the worst-case scenario.

- From tax collections to disinvestment to fiscal deficit, the numbers are likely to be sharply lower than the projections in the last budget- The coronavirus pandemic had led to two straight quarters of contraction in the economy and that is likely to hit the budget projections-According to ICRA, the tax revenue is likely to be 20% short of the ₹24.23 lakh crore expected by the Finance Minister in the last budget

-The aviation industry's deteriorating financial health has raised tax sops' expectations to help reduce their high cost and debt burden, especially lowering taxes on ATF. -The airport, parking, landing and navigation charges constitute a separate cost for the sector and the industry experts have asked for a reduction in the excessive levies along with other sops. -The government introduced a fare price band capping the air travel ticket prices for airlines to a minimum, in order to avoid exploitation by airlines. However, ICRA now believes that it is time for the government to remove the price band and let the airlines decide the ticket prices.

Indian government is set to hike import duties on over 50 items including the likes of smartphones, electronic items and others. According to a Reuters report, the hike could be as much as 5-10%.

Defence Budget to get a massive hike: Amidst the long standoff between India and China, according to reports, India’s defence budget could see an ‘unprecedented hike’ to meet the urgent requirements of the Indian Army.

More disposable income in the hands of the peopleAccording to reports, Budget 2021 might take forward the relief announced with the Atma Nirbhar package with the basic tax exemption limit for an individual being raised to ₹5 lakh from the current ₹2.5 lakh.

- Indian Railways could boost India’s GDP by 1.5 percent if it can expand its infrastructure. - Budget could provide policy direction on private trains, and faster connectivity on new routes.- The Union Budget 2021 might see more plans on bullet trains.- Railways sought a 50% increase in allocation for its safety fund—the Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh. - Support for its ‘Green Railways’ initiative: The Railways set an ambitious target to become ‘Green Railways’ by 2030.-Expansion of Kisan Rail routes across the country: More routes with cold storage, to be provided to farmers at subsidized rates.

- FM may allocate more funds for education. Currently, public expenditure on education stands at 4.4% of GDP.- Guidelines on an implementation plan for the National Education Policy.- More focus on digital infrastructure: Internet, smartphones or computers must be made ‘more’ available across the country to bring in inclusivity - Edtech startups seek tax sops, reform measures and incentives to boost online education. Indian edtech startups have raised over $2 billion in 2020. - FDI in education: The sector expects the government to share the burden of funds, and make way for foreign direct investments.

Among the most-watched figures in the budget would be the expenditure on vaccination in FY22 which could be shared among the central government, state governments and households. (PTI)

As India emerges from the COVID-19 crisis, the ninth budget under the Modi government, including an interim one, is widely expected to focus on boosting spending on job creation and rural development, generous allocations for development schemes, putting more money in the hands of the average taxpayer and easing rules to attract foreign investments.

Infrastructure status for hotels tops the wish list. The industry is also rooting for income tax reductions which will increase cash flow of businesses.

The gross GST revenue collected in January 2021 reached a record level of ₹1.2 lakh crore

India’s prime minister Narendra Modi may have signalled a significant allocation for the defence equipment manufacturing, three days before the big annual budget for the next financial year. While addressing a rally of the National Cadet Corps (NCC) at Cariappa Ground in New Delhi on January 29, Modi said, “India would soon be known as a producer of defence equipment, instead of being a market as it is today.”

Increase in standard deduction: This may be brought in for people working from homeMore rebates under Section 80C may be tweaked in order to push more investments in desired sectors like housingMore leave travel allowance (LTA) for more vacations and more sops to promote domestic travelIndustry seeks more incentives for research and development (R&D) More tax incentives for creating jobs

The Finance Ministry has decided not to print the budget documents amid the pandemic. This is a historic move as it will be for the first time in the history of independent India that the budget papers will not be printed.

This would be FM Sitharaman’s third budget under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.